THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


BEQUEST 

OF 
ANITA  D.  S.  BLAKE 


KLOSTEIiHEIM; 


OR, 


THE   MASQUE 


BY 

THOMAS    DE     QUINCEY, 

AUTHOR  OF  'CONFESSIONS  OF  AN  ENGLISH  OPIUM-EATEB.' 


WITH  A  BIOGRAPHICAL  PREFACE, 

BY 

DR.  SHELTON  MACKENZIE. 


BOSTON: 
WHITTEMORE,    NILES,    AND    HALL 

NEW  Y  ORE:  J.  C.  DERBY. 

CINCINNATI:    MOORE,   WILSTACH,    KEYS    &   CO. 

M  DCCC  LY. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1855,  by 

WHITTEMORE,  NILES,  AND  HALL, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


LOAN  STACK 
GIFT 


BIOGRAPHICAL   NOTICE 


BY 


DR.    S HELTON    MACKENZIE 


THOMAS  DE  QUINCET  was  born  at  Manchester  (in 
England),  on  the  15th  August,  1785.  He  passed  the 
whole  of  his  childhood,  except  for  the  few  earliest 
weeks,  in  a  rural  retirement.  The  death  of  two  of  his 
young  sisters,  before  he  was  six  years  old,  first  awak 
ened  in  his  mind  the  knowledge  that  mortality  was  the 
appointed  fate  of  human  beings.  In  his  "  Confessions 
of  an  English  Opium-Eater,"  he  has  recorded  in  what 
manner  such  deprivations  affected  him  when  they 
occurred,  and  how  then,  sinking  into  his  mind,  they 
influenced  it  in  later  years.  At  the  age  of  sixty,  re 
curring  to  the  period  of  his  childhood,  he  said  that  if 
he  should  return  thanks  to  Providence  for  all  the  sepa 
rate  blessings  of  his  early  situation,  these  four  he 
would  single  out  as  chiefly  worthy  to  be  commemo 
rated  :  that  he  lived  in  the  country  ;  that  he  lived  in 
solitude  ;  that  his  infant  feelings  were  moulded  by  the 


IV  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

gentlest  of  sisters,  not  by  horrid  pugilistic  brothers ; 
finally,  that  he  and  they  were  dutiful  children  of  a 
pure,  holy,  and  magnificent  church. 

His  father,  a  Liverpool  merchant  of  considerable 
wealth,  was  almost  a  stranger  to  him,  passing  the 
greater  portion  of  each  year  in  foreign  climates  sup 
posed  to  be  favorable  to  persons  afflicted  with  pulmo 
nary  consumption,  and  rarely  visiting  Greenhay,  (then 
a  clear  mile  from  the  outskirts,  but  now  a  portion  of 
the  city  of  Manchester,)  where  his  family  resided.  He 
returned  home  to  die  in  his  thirty-ninth  year.  This 
event  took  place  in  1792,  when  Thomas  De  Quincey 
was  only  seven  years  old. 

*'  Left  by  his  sire,  too  young  such  loss  to  know, 
Lord  of  himself — that  heritage  of  woe." 

The  elder  De  Quincey  left  a  widow  and  six  children, 
to  whom  he  bequeathed  ,£30,000,  yielding  an  annual 
income  of  ,£1600.  At  the  age  of  twenty-one,  about 
,£5000  of  this  capital  would  constitute  the  fortune  or 
portion  of  each  child. 

The  elder  De  Quincey,  his  son  states,  was  "  es 
teemed  during  his  life  for  his  great  integrity,"  and, 
himself  an  anonymous  author,  was  "  strongly  attach 
ed  to  literary  pursuits."  His  widow  appears  (as  has 
been  so  frequently  noticed  in  reference  to  men  who 
have  won  distinction)  to  have  possessed  abilities  of  a 
superior  class.  De  Quincey  says,  "  My  mother  I  may 
mention  with  honor,  as  still  more  highly  gifted ;  for 
though  unpretending  to  the  name  and  honors  of  a  lit 
erary  woman,  I  shall  presume  to  call  her  (what  many 
literary  women  are  not)  an  intellectual  woman ;  and  I 
believe  that  if  ever  her  letters  should  be  collected  and 


BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE.  V 

published,  they  would  be  thought  generally  to  exhibit 
as  much  strong  and  masculine  sense,  delivered  in  as 
pure  '  mother  English,'  racy  and  fresh  with  idiomatic 
graces,  as  any  in  our  language  —  hardly  excepting 
those  of  Lady  M.  W.  Montague." 

During  the  four  years  next  after  his  father's  death, 
Thomas  De  Quincey  and  his  brother  (five  years  his 
senior)  went  to  a  day-school  in  Salford,  —  now  an  in 
dependent  parliamentary  borough,  separated  from 
Manchester  by  the  small  river  Irwell.  Here  he  was 
grounded  in  the  classics.  At  the  early  age  of  eleven 
(as  he  confesses  in  his  "  Suspiria  de  Profundis,")  he 
fell  passionately  in  love  with  his  cousin,  a  little  girl  a 
year  younger  than  himself.  He  says  that  she  "  wore 
at  that  time  upon  her  very  lovely  face  the  most  angelic 
expression  of  character  and  temper  I  have  almost 
ever  seen."  A  year  after  (in  1796),  when  the  family 
house  and  grounds  at  Greenhay  were  sold,  for  less 
than  half  what  they  had  cost — (a  few  years  later, 
this  value  would  have  been  more  than  quadrupled), — 
De  Quincey  was  removed  to  the  grammar  school 
of  Bath,  at  which  he  speedily  displayed  a  talent  for 
making  Latin  verses,  which  obtained  him  considera 
tion  from  his  instructors  and  provoked  hostility  from 
his  elder  schoolmates.  Subsequently  he  was  sent  to  a 
school  in  Wiltshire,  ofovhich  the  chief  recommendation 
lay  in  the  religious  character  of  its  master. 

There  was  an  acquaintance  of  long  standing  be 
tween  the  elder  De  Quincey  and  the  Earl  of  Aha- 
mont,  an  Irish  peer,  who  was  subsequently  created 
Marquis  of  Sligo.  This  nobleman's  eldest  son,  Lord 
Westport,  was  intimate  with  Thomas  De  Quincey, 
and,  when  at  Eton,  early  in  1800,  invited  him  to  visit 


VI  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

Ireland  with  him  in  the  ensuing  summer  and  autumn. 
Accepting  this  invitation,  De  Quincey  joined  his  friend 
at  Eton,  being  then  in  his  fifteenth  year,  and  had  the 
advantage  (such  as  it  was)  of  seeing  and  hearing 
Queen  Charlotte  and  all  the  princesses,  and  even  had 
an  interview  with  George  III.,  in  an  accidental  ren 
contre  at  Frogmore  —  a  pet  residence  of  the  Queen's 
—  in  which  the  king,  as  was  his  habit,  asked  a  variety 
of  questions,  and  rather  annoyed  the  young  interlo 
cutor  by  supposing,  from  the  foreign  name,  that  his 
family  had  come  over  with  the  Huguenots  at  the  revo 
cation  of  the  edict  of  Nantz,  whereas  they  had  been  in 
England  since  the  Conquest.  Shortly  after,  Mr.  De 
Quincey  was  an  invited  guest  to  one  of  the  Queen's 
fetes  at  Frogmore  —  a  compliment  with  which,  as  a 
youth  and  an  Englishman,  he,  naturally  enough,  was 
much  pleased.  In  May,  1800,  in  company  with  Lord 
Westport,  he  first  beheld  and  entered  what  he  calls 
that  "  mighty  wilderness,  the  city  —  no,  not  the  city, 
but  the  nation  —  of  London."  They  were  merely 
passing  through,  but  having  to  choose  whether  to  visit 
Westminster  Abbey  or  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  preferred 
the  latter. 

In  his  "  Autobiographic  Sketches,"  a  full  narrative 
is  given  of  De  Quincey's  visit  to  Ireland,  as  Lord 
Westport's  guest,  through  England  and  Wales  to 
Holyhead  —  then  as  now  the  favorite  port  of  commu 
nication  with  Ireland.  The  distance  of  sixty  miles  was 
traversed  in  thirty  hours  —  steam  navigation  being 
then  unknown.  At  this  time,  De  Quincey  wanted 
a  few  months  of  fifteen,  but,  thanks  to  the  rank  of  his 
host,  was  introduced  to  Lord  Cornwallis,  the  Viceroy 
of  Ireland,  as  well  as  to  Lord  Clare  (the  Chancellor), 


BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE.  Vll 

Lord  Castlereagh,  Foster  (Speaker  of  tho  House  of 
Commons),  and  other  notorieties.  Here,  too,  he  wit 
nessed  the  splendors  of  installing  six  knights  (one 
of  them  being  Lord  Westport's  father)  of  the  Order  of 
St.  Patrick,  and  the  not  less  impressive,  but  far  more 
melancholy  incident,  of  the  final  ratification,  in  the 
Irish  House  of  Lords,  of  the  Act  by  which  the  Parlia 
ment  of  Ireland  was  abolished,  and  the  independence 
of  a  fine  nation  destroyed  by  the  treachery  of  her  own 
legislature.  In  one  of  his  "  Autobiographic  Sketches," 
there  is  a  graphic  account  of  this  "  end  of  an  auld 
sang  "  —  to  use  Lord  Bellhaven's  plain-spoken  criti 
cism  on  the  ratification  of  the  Act  of  Union  between 
Scotland  and  England.  Soon  after,  De  Quincey  ac 
companied  Lord  Westport  to  that  part  of  Connaught 
(the  county  of  Mayo)  in  which  the  family  estates 
chiefly  lie,  leisurely  travelling  in  a  series  of  short  visits 
to  the  Irish  nobility  and  gentry  en  route,  and  thus  mix 
ing  with  a  higher  class  of  society  than  school-boys  of 
fifteen  are  generally  in  the  way  of  associating  with. 

Early  in  November,  1800,  De  Quincey  returned  to 
Dublin,  and  after  a  short  sojourn  there  —  during  which 
he  fell  in  love  with  Miss  Blake,  a  lovely  Irishwoman, 
sister  to  Lord  Wallscourt  and  to  the  Countess  of  Erroll 
—  travelled  back  to  England,  Lord  Westport  returning 
to  Eton,  and  De  Quincey  proceeding  to  Northampton 
shire,  on  a  visit  to  Lord  Carbery,  at  which  place  inti 
mation  was  made  to  him  that  some  fixed  resolution 
would  be  taken  and  announced  to  him  with  regard  to 
the  future  disposal  of  his  time  until,  two  or  three  years 
later,  he  should  be  old  enough  to  matriculate  at  Oxford 
or  Cambridge.  In  the  following  year  (1801),  he  was  at 
Liverpool,  where  he  became  acquainted  with  Dr.  Currie 


Vlll  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

(the  first  biographer  of  Burns),  Dr.  Shepherd,  author 
of  a  Life  of  Poggio  Bracciolini,  and  William  Roscoe. 
A  little  earlier,  he  had  become  known  to,  and  intimate 
with,  the  Rev.  John  Clowes,  who  died  in  1831,  after  hav 
ing  been  rector  of  St.  John's,  Manchester,  for  more  than 
sixty  years,  and,  becoming  imbued  with  Swedenborg's 
peculiar  doctrines,  had  devoted  a  great  portion  of  his 
large  income  to  the  translation  and  publication  of  his 
numerous  works. 

On  his  father's  death,  Thomas  De  Quincey  had  been 
left  under  four  male  guardians  and  his  mother.  One 
of  these  lived  at  a  distance,  and  is  described  as  being 
"  more  reasonable  and  having  more  knowledge  of  the 
world  than  the  rest."  Two  others  resigned  their  au 
thority  into  the  hands  of  the  fourth,  "  a  worthy  man  in 
his  way,  but  haughty,  obstinate,  and  intolerant  of  all 
opposition  to  his  will."  In  the  summer  of  1802,  De 
Quincey,  who  was  fully  competent  to  enter  college, 
(he  says  that  at  thirteen  he  wrote  Greek  at  ease  and,  at 
fifteen,  not  only  composed  Greek  verses  in  lyric  meas 
ures,  but  could  converse  in  Greek  fluently  and  with 
out  embarrassment,  being  in  the  daily  practice  of 
reading  off  the  newspapers  in  Greek  extempore,)  ap 
plied  to  his  guardians  for  permission  to  do  so.  They 
consented,  agreeing  to  give  him  an  annual  allowance 
of  ,£200,  then  universally  regarded  as  the  minimum 
for  an  Oxford  student.  But  annexed  to  this  grant  was 
the  condition  that  De  Quincey  should  then  make  a 
positive  and  definite  choice  of  a  profession.  Had  he 
chosen  the  law,  perhaps  the  next  three  or  four  years  of 
his  life  should  be  spent,  not  at  Oxford,  as  he  earnestly 
desired,  but  in  the  chambers  of  a  special  pleader  in 
London.  He  determined  not  to  give  the  required 


BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE.  IX 

pledge,  and  (in  August,  ISO'J),  a  few  days  before  his 
iiteenth  birth-day,  finding  that  he  had  to  hope  for 
no  compromise  with  bis  guardian's  resolute  will,  eloped 
from  school,  with  twelve  guineas  in  his  pocket  —  ten 
of  which  were  lent  him  by  a  woman  of  high  rank, 
(Lady  Carbery  ?),  who,  though  young  herself,  had 
known  him  from  a  child.  Thus  scantily  provided  for, 
he  walked  off  to  North  Wales,  where  he  rambled  for 
months,  and  finally  made  his  way  to  London,  in  some 
hopes  of  raising  money  on  the  portion  to  which  he 
would  be  entitled  at  the  age  of  twenty-one. 

What  appeared  in  the  London  Magazine,  in  1821, 
as  "  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium  Eater,"  con 
tains  a  narrative  of  his  adventures  in  Wales  and  Lon 
don  —  a  story  too  full  of  interest  in  its  details  to  be 
here  condensed.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  during  the 
months  he  remained  in  London,  he  suffered  such 
depths  of  want  and  starvation,  that,  in  after  years,  his 
health  was  greatly  injured.  His  attempts  to  put  the 
future  in  pledge  for  the  present,  by  means  of  Jew 
money-lenders,  wholly  failed,  but,  in  the  worst  ex 
treme  of  his  sufferings,  an  opening  was  made,  almost 
by  accident,  for  reconciliation  with  his  friends.  He 
quitted  London,  and  finally  matriculated  at  Oxford,  at 
Christmas,  1803,  being  then  in  his  nineteenth  year. 
But  his  guardian,  compelled  to  yield  on  this  point, 
refused  to  sign  an  order  for  more  than  <£100  a  year, 
the  allowance  made  to  him  at  school,  —  double  that 
sum  being  considered  the  lowest  amount  on  which  an 
undergraduate  could  then  live  at  the  University, — 
and  the  almost  inevitable  result  was  that,  some  eighteen 
months  later,  he  had  to  borrow  money  from  the  Jews, 


X  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

on  very  usurious  terms,  which  subsequently  plunged 
him  in  pecuniary  difficulties. 

De  Quincey  remained  at  Oxford  from  1803  to  1808, 
with  occasional  visits  to  London  during  terms  and  in 
the  long  vacation.  He  made  some  acquaintances  with 
literary  men.  In  the  summer  of  1803,  he  had  intro 
duced  himself  by  letter  to  Wordsworth,  but  did  not 
personally  know  him  until  five  years  later.  He  met 
Lamb  as  early  as  1804,  but  did  not  thoroughly  appre 
ciate  him  until  1808,  when  they  formed  a  mutual 
friendship,  which  continued  for  many  years,  down  to 
1827,  without  doubt.  At  this  period,  too,  he  became 
intimate  with  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  Mr.  Godwin,  Lady 
Hamilton,  Hannah  More,  Walking  Stewart,  Mr.  Haz- 
litt,  Mr.  Abernethy,  and  others.  He  also  met  Dr.  Parr, 
for  whose  great  pedantry  and  rude  manners  he  ex 
pressed  undisguised  contempt  in  later  years. 

To  this  period  also  belongs  De  Quincey's  personal 
knowledge  of  Coleridge.  In  1804  or  1805  (as  he 
states),  he  learned  that  Coleridge  had  for  some  time 
applied  his  whole  mind  to  metaphysics  and  psychology 
—  which  then  happened  to  be  De  Quincey's  own  ab 
sorbing  pursuit  at  the  time.  He  did  not  succeed  in 
meeting  him  until  1807,  at  Bridgewater,  in  Somer 
setshire,  and  was  so  much  delighted  with  him  that, 
understanding  him  to  labor  under  some  pecuniary  em 
barrassment,  he  "  contrived  that  a  particular  service 
should  be  tendered  to  Mr.  Coleridge,  a  week  after, 
through  the  hands  of  Mr.  Cottle,  of  Bristol,  which 
might  have  the  effect  of  liberating  his  mind  from 
anxiety  for  a  year  or  two,  and  thus  rendering  his  great 
powers  disposable  to  their  natural  uses.  That  service 
was  accepted  by  Coleridge.  To  save  him  any  feel- 


BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE.  XI 

ings  of  distress,  all  names  were  concealed,"  —  but 
De  Quincey  learned  from  himself,  rifteen  years  later, 
that  Coleridge  was  cognizant,  from  the  first,  of  the 
author  of  his  munificence.  De  Quincey's  own  ac 
count,  here  quoted,  is  delicate  and  forbearing.  The 
facts,  as  related  in  Mr.  Cottle's  Reminiscences,  are  so 
much  to  De  Quincey's  credit  that  they  should  not  be 
omitted  here.  When  De  Quincey  first  met  Cottle,  he 
inquired  into  Coleridge's  pecuniary  affairs,  and  asked 
whether  he  would  accept  one  or  two  hundred  pounds. 
Coleridge  was  applied  to,  declared  that  pecuniary 
pressures  of  the  moment  were  the  only  serious  obsta 
cles  to  the  completion  of  several  works,  which,  if  com 
pleted,  would  make  him  easy,  and  that  he  would  accept 
the  money  as  an  unconditional  loan.  On  learning  this, 
De  Quincey  immediately  declared  that  he  would  give 
five  hundred  pounds,  provided  the  source  whence  this 
bounty  flowed  was  never  named  to  Coleridge.  At 
this  time,  De  Quincey  was  twenty-two  years  old,  and 
the  intended  gift  was  a  tenth  of  his  whole  patrimony. 
On  Mr.  Cottle's  earnest  suggestion,  the  amount  be 
stowed  was  reduced  to  c£300.  De  Quincey  never  ascer 
tained  whether  this  service  was  of  serious  benefit  to 
Coleridge ;  it  has  been  ascertained  by  others  that  a 
large  portion  of  it  had  been  spent  in  procuring 
opium,  to  the  use  of  which  Coleridge  was  addicted  all 
his  life.  The  generosity  of  De  Quincey  is  not  lessen 
ed  by  the  misuse  of  his  princely  gift. 

Immediately  after  this  transaction,  in  the  fall  of 
1817,  De  Quincey  proceeded  to  the  lakes  (accom 
panying  Mrs.  Coleridge  and  her  three  children)  to  see 
Wordsworth,  then  residing  in  a  small  cottage  at  Gras- 
mere,  between  Ambleside  and  Keswick,  and  then,  also, 


Xll  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

he  first  met  Southey.  So  much  pleased  was  he  with 
the  country  and  these  new  friends,  that,  in  the  follow 
ing  year,  he  took  Wordsworth's  cottage  on  a  seven 
years'  lease,  and,  indeed,  had  his  domicil  during  the 
next  twenty  years  amongst  the  lakes  and  mountains  of 
Westmoreland.  He  made  visits,  southwards  in  Eng 
land,  and  northward  in  Scotland  ;  but  nine  months  out 
of  every  twelve,  between  1808  and  1829,  he  lived  in 
Westmoreland. 

Here  he  applied  himself,  very  successfully,  to  the 
study  of  metaphysics  and  German.  Here  he  extended 
his  literary  acquaintanceship,  meeting  Wilson  at 
Wordsworth's,  and  Charles  Lloyd  also.  In  1814,  on 
a  visit  to  the  mother  of  the  late  Professor  Wilson,  he 
first  went  to  Edinburgh,  and  among  the  earliest  of  his 
friends  there  may  be  named  Sir  William  Hamilton, 
the  present  venerable  Professor  of  Logic  in  the  Univer 
sity.  These  visits  to  Scotland  were  frequently  re 
newed,  particularly  after  Wilson  was  made  Professor 
of  Moral  Philosophy  in  1820,  and  in  1832  he  was 
induced  to  take  his  permanent  residence  there. 

It  was  in  Westmoreland  also  that  De  Quincey  mar 
ried.  The  exact  date  is  not  known,  nor  has  he  any 
where  mentioned  the  lady's  maiden  name  —  but,  in 
his  Literary  Reminiscences,  at  the  date  of  November, 
1807,  apostrophizing  his  wife,  he  says,  "  Thou  wert  at 
present  a  child  not  nine  years  old,  nor  had  I  seen  thy 
face,  nor  heard  thy  name.  But  within  nine  years 
(1816)  from  that  same  night,  thou  wert  seated  by  my 
side  ; —  and,  thenceforwards,  through  a  period  of  four 
teen  years  (1830),  how  often  did  we  two  descend,  hand 
locked  in  hand,  and  thinking  of  things  to  come,  at  a 


BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE.  Xlll 

pace  of  hurricane."     Of  this  marriage,  which  was  a 
very  happy  union,  several  daughters  were  the  issue. 

It  now  becomes  necessaiy  to  go  back  to  the  autumn 
of  1804,  when  De  Quincey,  then  nineteen  years  old, 
took  some  tincture  of  opium,  on  the  recommendation 
of  a  friend,  to  alleviate  the  pains  of  a  severe  attack  of 
rheumatism  in  the  head.  The  specific  removed  the 
pains,  but  also  created  such  a  pleasurable  sort  of  intel 
lectual  excitement,  that  its  use  was  adopted  and  con 
tinued  for  ten  years.  This  habit  of  constant  use  was 
continued  through  the  earlier  years  of  De  Quincey's 
residence  at  Grasmere.  His  health  did  not  appear  in 
juriously  affected  during  the  first  eight  years,  1804  to 
1812  ;  but  in  the  course  of  1813,  there  was  a  renewal 
of  a  severe  irritation  of  the  stomach,  the  result  of  his 
miserable  starvation  months  in  London.  To  mitigate 
the  suffering  thus  caused,  he  increased  the  frequency 
and  quantity  of  his  opium-takings,  until,  at  last,  his 
doses  amounted  to  320  grains  of  opium,  or  8000  drops 
per  diem  —  an  amount,  large  though  it  be,  little  more 
(Southey  has  stated)  than  half  what  Coleridge  had 
accustomed  himself  to  at  the  very  same  time.  But,  by 
1816  (probably  when  he  was  about  being  married), 
De  Quincey  determined  to  break  himself,  if  possible, 
of  the  baneful  practice.  He  reduced  his  daily  dose 
from  340  grains  to  40,  and  the  "  Confessions  "  detail, 
with  impressive  power  of  description  and  expression, 
the  pleasures  and  the  pains  of  opium-taking.  Thrice 
was  the  effort  made  to  abandon  the  habit  —  twice  it 
failed.  At  last,  by  a  strong  effort  of  the  will,  opium 
was  wholly  abandoned,  leaving  the  body  indeed  weak, 
but  the  intellect  if  not  stronger,  at  least  more  self- 
reliant  and  fructifying  than  before.  In  the  "  Confes- 


XIV  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

sions,"  he  records,  in  beautiful  and  touching  language, 
how  greatly  he  was  indebted  to  the  tender  and  watch 
ful  affection  of  his  wife.  He  says,  after  comparing 
himself  to  the  dream-haunted  Orestes,  "  My  Eume- 
nides,  like  his,  were  at  my  bed-feet,  and  stared  in  upon 
me  through  the  curtains ;  but,  watching  by  my  pillow, 
or  defrauding  herself  of  sleep  to  bear  me  company 
through  the  heavy  watches  of  the  night,  sat  my  Electra  ; 
for  thou,  beloved  M.,  dear  companion  of  my  later 
years,  thou  wast  my  Electra  !  and  neither  in  nobility 
of  mind  nor  in  long-suffering  affection,  wouldst  permit 
that  a  Grecian  sister  should  excel  an  English  wife. 
For  thou  thoughtest  not  much  to  stoop  to  humble 
offices  of  kindness,  and  to  servile  ministrations  of  ten- 
derest  affection  ;  to  wipe  away  for  years  the  un 
wholesome  dews  upon  the  forehead,  or  to  refresh  the 
lips  when  parched  and  baked  with  fever  ;  nor  even 
when  thy  own  peaceful  slumbers  had  by  long  sympathy 
become  infected  with  the  spectacle  of  my  dread  con 
test  with  phantoms  and  shadowy  enemies,  that  often 
times  bade  me  '  sleep  no  more  ! '  —  not  even  then 
didst  thou  utter  a  complaint  or  any  murmur,  nor  with 
draw  thy  angelic  smiles,  nor  shrink  from  thy  service 
of  love,  more  than  Electra  did  of  old.  For  she,  too, 
though  a  Grecian  woman,  and  the  daughter  of  the 
King  of  men,  yet  wept  sometimes,  and  hid  her  face 
in  her  robe." 

In  1821,  after  he  had  been  five  years  married,  dur 
ing  which  time  three  children  were  born  to  him, 
De  Quincey  was  compelled,  by  pressing  pecuniary 
embarrassments,  to  endeavor  to  extricate  himself  by 
literature.  At  that  time  he  was  thirty-six  years  old, 
in  the  fulness  of  mental  strength,  but  with  his  bodily 


BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE.  XV 

health  mucli  shaken  by,  and  suffering  from,  the  inju 
rious  effects  of  excessive  indulgence  in  the  use  of 
opium.  He  proceeded  to  London,  where  he  had 
many  literary  friends,  and  had  no  difficulty  in  obtain 
ing  ;ui  engagement  as  contributor  to  the  London  Mag 
azine —  a  periodical  of  much  worth  and  promise  at 
the  time,  with  an  array  of  writers  which  included  some 
of  the  most  brilliant  then  in  England.  He  has  enume 
rated  among  them,  Charles  Lamb,  Hazlitt,  Allan 
Cunningham,  Thomas  Hood,  Hamilton  Reynolds, 
Carey  (the  translator  of  Dante),  Crow,  the  public 
orator  of  Cambridge,  John  Clare  (the  Northamptonshire 
peasant  poet),  Charles  Phillips,  Talfourd,  and  John 
Taylor,  one  of  the  publishers  of  the  Magazine,  a 
political  economist  of  some  note,  and  author  of  the 
ablest  work  yet  written  to  identify  Sir  Philip  Fran 
cis  with  the  authorship  of  Junius. 

De  Quincey's  original  intention  was  simply  to  supply 
translations  from  the  best  German  writers,  —  Germany 
being  a  literary  field  in  which,  at  that  time,  scarcely 
any  English  ploughshare  had  turned  up  a  furrow. 
But  it  was  known  how  his  health  had  suffered  from  the 
use  and  abuse  of  opium,  and  the  eloquent  manner  in 
which  he  spoke  of  the  pleasures  and  pains  caused  by 
that  nepenthe,  caused  the  suggestion  —  the  request  — 
that  he  would  relate  his  experiences.  Accordingly, 
in  the  autumn  of  1821,  he  wrote  the  greater  part  of 
the  "  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium-Eater."  He 
has  recorded,  that  "  the  narrative  part  was  written 
with  singular  rapidity,"  while  that  portion  relating  to 
his  dreams  was  much  more  slowly  composed,  from 
the  pain  of  recollecting  the  sufferings  by  which  he  had 
been  all  but  utterly  prostrated.  The  first  portion,  which 


XVI  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

appeared  in  the  London  Magazine  in  1821,  was  im 
mediately  and  immensely  popular.  Its  originality  and 
its  power  struck  a  fresh  key  on  the  public  mind,  and 
when  the  work  was  presented,  in  a  collected  form,  as 
a  book,  in  1822,  its  sale  was  unusually  great.  It  has 
gone  through  numerous  editions  in  England,  and  at 
once  placed  its  author  in  the  front  rank  of  vivid  and 
powerful  writers.  Not  until  1845  did  a  continuation 
appear  (in  Blackwood's  Magazine),  under  the  title  of 
'  Suspiria  de  Profundis."  More  unequal,  more  desul 
tory,  less  concentrated  than  the  original  "  Confes 
sions,"  it  yet  contains  many  powerful,  and  sometimes 
even  brilliant  passages.  It  is  less  unequal,  indeed, 
than  might  have  been  anticipated  from  the  circum 
stance  of  its  emanating  from  the  resumption  of  a 
work  of  great  merit  after  the  lapse  of  nearly  quarter 
of  a  century. 

The  "  Suspiria  "  appeared  avowedly  as  a  sequel  to 
the  "  Confessions,"  —  but  it  does  not  complete  the 
work  according  to  De  Quincey's  own  ideal.  Two  other 
portions  were  avowedly  in  his  contemplation  —  one 
to  be  entitled  "  The  Pariah  World,"  and  the  other 
"  The  Kingdom  of  Darkness."  As  it  is,  therefore, 
confessedly  incomplete  (though  not  imperfect,  for  it 
is  entirely  sui  generis  and  perfect  as  far  as  it  goes),  it 
may  be  looked  upon  as  a  literary  torso,  the  beauty  of 
the  whole  to  be  judged  from  the  fragment  which  we 
possess. 

The  "  Confessions,"  and,  indeed,  the  whole  of  De 
Quincey's  works,  were  written  under  no  stronger 
external  excitement  than  that  supplied  by  the  herb 
which  cheers  but  does  not  inebriate.  He  has  himself 
said,  "  I  usually  drink  tea  from  eight  o'clock  at  night 


BIOGRAPHICAL    .NOTICE.  XVli 

to  four  in  tho  morning."  It  was  between  thosi-  hours 
that  he  studied  and  wrote,  while  in  London  in  1821-23, 
and  the  habit  lias  not  been  wholly  relinquished  at  tho 
•it  hour. 

The  >f  the  "Confessions"  placed  De  Quin- 

cey  at  one*1  in  a  high  position  as  a  writer,  and  his 
contributions  to  the  periodical  press  were  paid  for  at  a 
price.  In  1824,  when  the  German  booksellers, 
in  tho  absence  of  a  new  Waverley  Novel,  produced 
'•  \Valladmor,  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,"  an  early  copy 
of  the  forgery  was  placed  in  De  Quincey's  hands, 
and  by  him  rapidly  reviewed  for  the  London  Maga 
zine.  The  extracts  which  he  gave  awakened  so  much 
curiosity  that  the  translation  and  English  publication 
of  the  work  was  determined  on.  It  appeared,  on 
closer  examination,  so  deficient  in  merit,  that  De  Quin- 
cey  had  to  re-write  and  re-cast  the  greater  portion  of 
it.  In  this  guise  was  it  published  ;  and,  written  against 
time  as  it  was,  deserves  to  be  considered,  from  its  own 
claims,  as  well  as  the  circumstances  which  produced 
it,  one  of  t';e  literary  curiosities  of  the  time. 

In  1825,  De  Quincey  contributed  to  Knight's  Quar 
terly  Magazine,  the  periodical  in  which  some  of  Macau- 
lay's  earliest  prose  and  poetry  appeared.  As  early  as 
October,  1825,  De  Quincey  was  recognized,  by  the  wits 
of  Blackwood's  Magazine,  by  being  introduced  as  an 
interlocutor  at  the  "  Noctes  Ambrosianai."  On  other 
occasions  he  was  similarly  honored,  and  was  inva 
riably  mentioned  with  praise  by  Wilson,  the  presiding 
genius  of  Maga.  He  was  easily  induced  to  join  the 
contributors,  and  his  first  avowed  articles,  called  the 
"  Gallery  of  the  German  Prose  Classics,"  were  com 
menced  in  Blackwood  for  November,  1826.  The 
b 


XV111  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

series  opened  with  Lessing,  and  a  subsequent  paper 
was  devoted  to  Kant.  From  that  period  De  Quincey 
has  occasionally  been  a  large,  though  desultory  con 
tributor  to  Blackwood,  and  some  of  his  best  papers 
have  appeared  in  that  periodical. 

In  1832,  he  appears  to  have  determined  to  make 
Edinburgh  his  future  residence.  At  that  time,  Wil 
liam  Tait,  an  enterprising  publisher,  of  ultra-liberal 
opinions,  established  Tait's  Edinburgh  Magazine,  as  a 
counterpoise  to  Blackwood's,  which  was  the  child  and 
champion  of  Scottish  Toryism.  At  that  time,  the 
great  political  question  of  the  day  was  Parliamentary 
Reform,  —  declared  by  one  party  to  be  indispensable 
for  the  preservation  of  the  British  Empire,  denounced 
by  another  party  as  revolutionary  in  the  extreme. 
Tait  was  on  the  popular  side.  De  Quincey's  avowed 
politics  were  on  the  other.  But  publisher  and  author 
agreed  in  thinking  that  literature  proper  was  of  no 
particular  politics  nor  party,  and,  liberal  terms  being 
offered,  De  Quincey  became  a  contributor  to  Tait, 
and  the  "Literary  Reminiscences"  which  now  consti 
tute  two  volumes  in  the  American  collection  of  his 
writings,  were  first  given  to  the  world  through  that 
periodical.  He  has  also  contributed  largely  to  the 
Encyclopedia  Britannica,  the  North  British  Review, 
Hogg's  Weekly  Instructor,  and  other  less  known 
periodicals.  In  1837,  he  resumed  his  connection  with 
Blackwood,  (producing  that  remarkable  narrative, 
nearly  all  imaginary,  called  "  Revolt  of  the  Tartars  ; 
or  th2  Flight  of  the  Kalmuck  Khan  and  his  people 
from  the  Russian  Territories  to  the  frontiers  of 
China,")  and,  for  some  years  enriched  that  periodical 
with  a  series  of  papers  upon  a  variety  of  subjects, 


BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE.  XIX 

which  certainly  show  him  fully  entitled  to  the  title  of 
myriad-minded  man.  Even  yet,  though  old  age  has 
overtaken  him,  in  addition  to  constant  ill  health,  "  the 
old  man  eloquent  "  has  not  relinquished  the  pen. 

De  Quincey  has  written  upon  a  wider  and  more 
diversified  range  of  subjects  than  any  other  author  of 
his  time.  Theology,  metaphysics,  political  economy, 
criticism,  history,  philosophy,  biography,  astronomy, 
fiction,  classical  and  German  literature,  have  by  turns 
engaged  his  attention,  as  well  as  essays  on  literature 
and  men  of  letters,  and  narratives  of  singular  force  and 
merit.  Scattered  as  his  writings  are  over  a  variety  of 
periodicals,  during  a  period  of  nearly  five-and-thirty 
years,  it  is  probable  that  no  collection  of  them  would 
have  been  undertaken  in  England,  (partly  from  the 
difficulty  of  ascertaining  the  identity  of  all,  and  partly 
because  of  the  claims  on  their  copyrights  by  different 
publishers,)  if  Messrs.  Ticknor  &  Fields,  of  Boston, 
had  not  ventured  on  the  somewhat  hazardous  task  — 
the  result  being  not  only  pecuniary  success,  in  which 
they  have  voluntarily  permitted  the  author  to  partici 
pate,  but  the  thus  making  De  Quincey's  writings 
known  to  the  new  generation  of  readers  who  have 
sprung  up  since  he  first  appeared  in  print.  This  suc 
cess,  also,  echoing  back  to  his  cottage  at  Lasswade, 
near  Edinburgh,  (a  picturesque  situation,  on  which 
Scott  happily  passed  the  first  few  years  of  his  man 
hood,  where  he  vibrated  between  obscurity  and  fame,) 
has  induced  him  to  collect  and  revise  for  republication 
in  England,  such  of  his  writings  as  he  desired  deliber 
ately  to  avow.  And  thus,  from  this  country,  the  very 
existence  of  whose  literature  was  challenged  by  an 
Edinburgh  reviewer,  within  the  memory  of  men  not 


XX  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

yet  aged,  has  sped  across  the  wide  Atlantic  a  hearty 
and  cheering  recognition,  in  his  later  years,  of  the 
genius  of  Thomas  De  Quincey. 

The  "  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium-Eater," 
unquestionably  show  that  the  writer  is  gifted  in  no  or 
dinary  degree.  Had  he  rested  upon  this,  De  Quincey 
would  have  attained  a  reputation  scarcely  inferior  to 
that  of  any  prose  writer  in  the  language.  But  "  dura 
necessitas,  et  res  angustce  domi,"  compelled  him  to 
belong  to  the  class  who  do  not  live  to  write,  but  write 
to  live.  Hence,  his  powers  have  been  frittered  away,  in 
a  manner,  in  magazine  writing,  —  the  most  exhausting, 
perhaps,  of  all  sorts  of  composition.  Hence,  with  the 
additional  drawback  of  ill  health  and  depressed  spirits, 
(which  have  often  obstructed  him  in  writing,)  he  has 
scarcely  given  any  decided  and  substantive  proof  of 
the  great  powers  which  he  undoubtedly  possesses.  He 
has  not  done  justice  to  himself. 

It  would  have  been  well  had  his  other  writings  pos 
sessed  the  earnestness  and  intensity  of  his  u  Confes 
sions."  But  —  one  of  the  results,  almost  inevitable, 
perhaps,  of  his  writing  for  periodicals  —  he  has  fallen 
into  the  habit,  not  only  of  overlaying  his  thoughts  with 
words,  but  of  obstructing  the  free  course  of  their  ex 
pression  by  digressions,  parentheses,  and  extraneous 
and  desultory  matter,  bearing  little  direct  relation  to 
his  subject.  His  reigning  fault  is  want  of  concentra 
tion.  He  sometimes  heaps  words  upon  words,  as  if  to 
show  the  richness  of  his  vocabulary.  No  one  who  has 
read  his  "  Confessions  "  can  think  him  deficient  in 
imagination  —  some  of  hjs  word-pictures  cannot  be 
surpassed  —  but  he  rarely  has  indulged  in  this  great 
power.  His  learning,  unquestionably  great,  has  too 


BIOGKAPIIICAL    NOTICE.  XXI 

often  led  him  into  pedantry.  On  a  few  occasions 
(such  as  '•  Murder  Considered  as  one  of  :h.-  l;ino  Arts," 
in  which  the-  title  is  the-  most  suggestive  part  of  the 
piper,)  IK-  has  attempted  to  he  humorous.  That  he 
has  scarcely  succeeded  may  be  attributed  to  his  greater 
appreciation  of  the  higher  faculty  of  w&,  which  has  dis 
qualified  him  from  the  expression  of  what  is  merely 
ludicrous.  A  writer  in  the  W^tniin^rr  AVr/Yw,  of 
acknowledged  critical  acumen,  has  thus  summed  up 
his  conclusions  :  — "  With  a  genius  so  original  —  with 
such  stores  of  learning  —  such  depth  of  insight,  —  and 
such  subtlety  of  thought,  —  Mr.  De  Quincey  has  given 
us  no  one  really  great  work.  He  has  written  on 
almost  every  subject,  but  has  exhausted  none.  He  has 
thrown  out  hints  and  suggestions  of  the  utmost  value, 
but  has  left  it  to  others  to  follow  them  laboriously  up. 
He  has  acquired  a  style  of  the  rarest  brilliancy  and 
richness,  but  he  is  constantly  diminishing  his  force  — 
now  by  his  capricious  use  of  words,  and  now  by  the 
we.iry  length  of  his  digressions."  But,  whatever  the 
defects  of  his  manner,  De  Quincey's  matter  is  good. 
.He  writes,  whatever  subject  he  takes  up,  from  the  ful 
ness  of  his  knowledge,  and,  considering  the  quantity 
he  has  carelessly  flung  off,  and  the  circumstances 
under  which  he  has  produced  it,  Thomas  De  Quincey 
may  fairly  be  placed  among  the  great  spirits  of  his 
time. 

Even  now,  having  passed  the  allotted  threescore 
and  ten  years  of  human  life,  with  his  mind's  natural 
force  not  abated,  he  fondly  indulges  in  the  dream  of 
yet  producing  some  separate  work  which  the  world 
will  not  willingly  let  die.  That  he  can  do  so,  no  one 
need  doubt.  In  his  later  years,  —  happily  passed  at 


XX11  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

Lasswade,  in  the  society  of  his  children  and  within 
reach  of  frequent  companionship  with  gifted  friends, 
themselves  most  eminent,  who  admire  the  brilliant 
course  of  the  author,  and  love  the  harmless  and  pure 
life  of  the  man,  —  his  mind  may  flourish 

"Like  the  Aloe  flower, 
Which  blooms  and  blossoms  at  fourscore." 


"  Klosterheirn,  or  The  Masque,"  written  in  the  full 
maturity  of  Thomas  De  Quincey's  mind, — .at  the 
age  of  forty-six,  and  only  ten  years  after  his  first 
essay  as  author  of"  Confessions  of  an  English  Opium- 
Eater,"  —  eminently  deserves  the  designation  of  a 
Curiosity  of  Literature ;  and  it  is  surprising  that  it 
was  not  particularly  referred  to,  as  such,  in  the  last 
edition  of  the  elder  D'Israeli's  work.  It  will  be 
admitted  that,  even  in  his  most  discursive  and  ex 
panded  compositions,  De  Quincey  gave  evidence  that 
he  possessed  rich  fancy  and  high  imagination,  in  con 
junction  with  extensive  erudition.  It  might  have  been 
expected,  also,  that  when  adventuring  on  a  new  path, 
as  a  writer  of  fiction,  he  would  have  taken  his  stand 
upon  English  ground  and  drawn  from  the  varieties  of 
English  character  and  incident.  But  his  great  pride 
has  been  that  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  throw  open  the 
wealth  of  German  literature  —  that  El  Dorado  of  the 
mind  —  to  the  notice  of  his  countrymen,  and  his  soli 
tary  romance  has  its  scene,  characters,  and  action, 
upon  German  soil.  "  Klosterheim  "  is  as  essentially  a 
German  story,  as  if  it  had  been  translated.  From  first 
to  last,  without  pause,  break,  or  digression,  the  plot  is 


BIOGRAPHICAL     NOTICE.  XXI11 

made  conducive  to  a  certain  denouement,  which  the 
skill  of  the  artist-author  has  contrived,  with  great, 
adroitness,  s«i  as  not  to  be  suspected  until  the  very  ter 
mination  of  the  story.  The  leading  elements  and 
characteristics  of  fiction  —  wild  adventure,  guilt-born 
terror,  enduring  love,  and  secret  mystery  —  pervade 
the  whole  composition,  which  reads  like  a  true  narra 
tive  of  actual  events,  so  progressive  are  the  incidents, 
so  complete  the  vrai-semblancc.  In  some  scenes,  the 
limits  of  the  supernatural  are  reached,  and  the  effect  is 
startling.  Into  his  service  he  has  impressed  hatred  and 
love,  revenge  and  remorse,  fear  and  courage,  mystery 
and  terror ;  and,  in  the  closing  scenes,  has  freely  made 
use  of  that  response  which  keeps  the  reader  breathless 
with  expectation.  —  In  the  employment  of  mystery  and 
terror,  he  awakens  recollections  of  the  wonderful  art 
with  which  Mrs.  RadclifFe  extorted  science  from  the 
same  mighty  agents.  Like  her,  too,  —  and  she  is 
named  head  of  the  novelists  who  used  such  science  — 
though  he  appears,  at  times,  to  pass  into  the  supernat 
ural,  he  never  wholly  abandons  the  actual.  If  he 
involves  the  characters  in  a  cloud  of  mystery,  he  does 
not  fail  to  dissipate  it,  at  the  proper  crisis,  with  the 
ingenuity  of  a  master  of  the  art. 

"  Klosterheim,"  as  a  literary  composition,  is  written 
in  De  Quincey's  best  style.  Its  language  is  full  of  con 
centration,  and  the  story  is  never  once  impeded  by  the 
digressions  and  the  waste  of  words,  which,  his  warmest 
admirers  admit,  constitute  the  defective  points  in  his 
subsequent  writings.  Another  striking  feature  in  "  Klos 
terheim  "  is  its  truly  dramatic  character,  —  a  feature  so 
observable,  indeed,  that  the  story  was  simultaneously 
dramatized  for  two  of  the  London  theatres,  and  per- 


XXIV  BIOGRAPHICAL    NOTICE. 

formed,  during  the  greater  part  of  the  season,  with 
great  success.  The  melodramatic  character  of  the 
story  rendered  it  so  readily  applicable,  that,  with  the 
exception  of  introducing  a  slight  underplot,  no  material 
alteration  was  made  by  the  playwrights. 

The  collected  works  of  De  Quincey  would  be  as  in 
complete  without  "  Klostcrheim,"  as  those  of  Byron 
without  u  English  Bards,"  of  Moore  without  the  "  Epi 
curean,"  of  Coleridge  without  the  fragment  of  "  Christ- 
abel,"  or  of  Scott  without  the  "  Talisman."  Composed 
in  the  prime  of  his  life,  when  his-  mental  and  bodily 
health  were  better  than  they  had  been  for  years,  the 
romance  of  Klosterhcim  may  be  taken  as  one  of  those 
labors  of  love,  conceived  in  a  happy  moment  and  exe 
cuted  in  a  happy  mood.  It  will  be  for  the  public  to 
determine  why  an  author  who  had  so  ably  acquitted 
himself  in  this  new  field  of  thought,  should  have  not 
cultivated  5l  more  industriously.  At  all  events,  "Klos- 
terheim"  stands  among  De  Quincey's  numerous  writ 
ings,  as  the  only  complete  and  extensive  effort  of  his 
14  imagination  all  compact." 


KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  winter  of  1633  had  set  in  with  unusual  severity 
throughout  Suabia  and  Bavaria,  though  as  yet-  scarcely 
advanced  beyond  the  first  week  of  November.  It  was, 
in  fact,  at  the  point  when  our  tale  commences,  the 
8th  of  that  month,  or,  in  our  modern  computation, 
the  18th  ;  long  after  which  date  it  had  been  customary 
of  late  years,  under  any  ordinary  state  of  the  weather, 
to  extend  the  course  of  military  operations,  and  with 
out  much  decline  of  vigor.  Latterly,  indeed,  it  had 
become  apparent  that  entire  winter  campaigns,  with 
out  either  formal  suspensions  of  hostilities,  or  even 
partial  relaxations,  had  entered  professedly  as  a  point 
of  policy  into  the  system  of  warfare  which  now  swept 
over  Germany  in  full  career,  threatening  soon  to  con 
vert  its  vast  central  provinces  —  so  recently  blooming 
Edens  of  peace  and  expanding  prosperity  —  into  a 
1 


X  KLOSTERHEIM. 

howling  wilderness  ;  and  which  had  already  converted 
immense  tracts  into  one  universal  aceldama,  or  human 
shambles,  reviving  to  the  recollection  at  every  step 
the  extent  of  past  happiness  in  the  endless  memorials 
of  its  destruction.  This  innovation  upon  the  old  prac 
tice  of  war  had  been  introduced  by  the  Swedish 
armies,  whose  northern  habits  and  training  had  for 
tunately  prepared  them  to  receive  a  German  winter  as 
a  very  beneficial  exchange  ;  whilst  upon  the  less 
hardy  soldiers  from  Italy,  Spain,  and  the  Southern 
France,  to  whom  the  harsh  transition  from  their  own 
sunny  skies  had  made  the  very  same  climate  a  severe 
trial  of  constitution,  this  change  of  policy  pressed  with 
a  hardship  that  sometimes  *  crippled  their  exertions. 

It  was  a  change,  however,  not  so  long  settled  as  to 
resist  the  extraordinary  circumstances  of  the  weather. 
So  fierce  had  been  the  cold  for  the  last  fortnight,  and 
so  premature,  that  a  pretty  confident  anticipation  had 
arisen,  in  all  quarters  throughout  the  poor  exhausted 
land,  of  a  general  armistice.  And  as  this,  once  estab 
lished,  would  offer  a  ready  opening  to  some  measure 
of  permanent  pacification,  it  could  not  be  surprising 
that  the  natural  hopefulness  of  the  human  heart,  long 
oppressed  by  gloomy  prospects,  should  open  with 

*  Of  which  there  is  more  than  one  remarkable  instance,  to  the 
great  dishonor  of  the  French  arms,  in  the  records  of  her  share 
in  the  Thirty  Years'  War. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  3. 

unusual  readiness  to  the  first  colorable  dawn  of  hap 
pier  times.  In  fact,  the  reaction  in  the  public  spirits 
was  sudden  and  universal.  It  happened  also  that  the 
particular  occasion  of  this  change  of  prospect  brought 
with  it  a  separate  pleasure  on  its  own  account.  Win 
ter,  which,  by  its  peculiar  severity,  had  created  the 
apparent  necessity  for  an  armistice,  brought  many 
household  pleasures  in  its  train  —  associated  imme- 
morially  with  that  season  in  all  northern  climates. 
The  cold  which  had  casually  opened  a  path  to  more 
distant  hopes,  was  also  for  the  present  moment  a 
screen  between  themselves  and  the  enemy's  sword. 
And  thus  it  happened  that  the  same  season,  which 
held  out  a  not  improbable  picture  of  final  restoration, 
however  remote,  to  public  happiness,  promised  them  a 
certain  foretaste  of  this  blessing  in  the  immediate 
security  of  their  homes. 

But  in  the  ancient  city  of  Klosterheim  it  might  have 
been  imagined  that  nobody  participated  in  these  feel 
ings.  A  stir  and.  agitation  amongst  the  citizens  had 
been  conspicuous  for  some  days ;  and  on  the  morning 
of  the  8th,  spite  of  the  intense  cold,  persons  of  every 
rank  were  seen  crowding  from  an  early  hour  to  the 
city  walls,  and  returning  homewards  at  intervals,  with 
anxious  and  dissatisfied  looks.  Groups  of  both  sexes 
were  collected  at  every  corner  of  the  wider  streets, 
keenly  debating,  or  angrily  protesting  ;  at  one  time  de 
nouncing  vengeance  to  some  great  enemy  ;  at  another, 


4  KLOSTERHEIM. 

passionately  lamenting  some  past  or  half- forgotten 
calamity,  recalled  to  their  thoughts  whilst  anticipating 
a  similar  catastrophe  for  the  present  day. 

Above  all,  the  great  square,  upon  which  the  ancient 
castellated  palace  or  schloss  opened  hy  one  of  its 
fronts,  as  well  as  a  principal  convent  of  the  city,  was 
the  resort  of  many  turbulent  spirits.  Most  of  these 
were  young  men,  and  amongst  them  many  students  of 
the  university  :  for  the  war,  which  had  thinned  or 
totally  dispersed  some  of  the  greatest  universities  in 
Germany,  under  the  particular  circumstances  of  its, 
situation  had  greatly  increased  that  of  Kiosterheim. 
Judging  by  the  tone  which  prevailed,  and  the  random 
expressions  which  fell  upon  the  ear  at  intervals,  a 
stranger  might  conjecture  that  it  was  no  empty  lamen 
tation  over  impending  evils  which  occupied  this  crowd, 
but  some  serious  preparation  for  meeting  or  redressing 
them.  An  officer  of  some  distinction  had  been  for 
some  time  observing  them  from  the  antique  portals  of 
the  palace.  It  was  probable,  however,  that  little  more 
than  their  gestures  had  reached  him  ;  for  at  length  he 
moved  nearer,  and  gradually  insinuated  himself  into 
the  thickest  part  of  the  mob,  with  the  air  of  one  who 
took  no  further  concern  in  their  proceedings,  than  that 
of  simple  curiosity.  But  his  martial  air  and  his  dress 
allowed  him  no  means  of  covering  his  purpose.  With 
more  warning  and  leisure  to  arrange  his  precautions, 
he  might  have  passed  as  an  indifferent  spectator  ;  as  it 


KLOSTERIIE1M.  5 

was,  his  jcwcl-hiltcd  sabre,  the  massy  gold  chain,  de 
pending  in  front  from  a  costly  button  and  loon,  which 
secured  it  halfway  down  his  back,  and  his  broad  crim 
son  scarf,  embroidered  in  a  style  of  peculiar  splendor, 
announced  him  as  a  favored  officer  of  the  Landgrave, 
whose  ambitious  pretensions,  and  tyrannical  mode  of 
supporting  them,  were  just  now  the  objects  of  general 
abhorrence  in  Klosterheim.  His  own  appearance  did 
not  belie  the  service  which  he  had  adopted.  He  was 
a  man  of  stout  person,  somewhat  elegantly  formed,  in 
age  about  three  or  four-and-thirty,  though  perhaps  a 
year  or  two  of  his  apparent  age  might  be  charged  upon 
the  bronzing  effects  of  sun  and  wind.  In  bearing  and 
carriage,  he  announced  to  every  eye  the  mixed  care 
lessness  and  self-possession  of  a  military  training  ;  and 
as  his  features  were  regular,  and  remarkably  intelli 
gent,  he  would  have  been  pronounced,  on  the  whole, 
a  man  of  winning  exterior,  were  it  not  for  the  repul 
sive  effect  of  his  eye,  in  which  there  was  a  sinister 
expression  of  treachery,  and  at  times  a  ferocious  one 
of  cruelty. 

Placed  upon  their  guard  by  his  costume,  and  the 
severity  of  his  countenance,  those  of  the  lower  rank 
were  silent  as  he  moved  along,  or  lowered  their  voices 
into  whispers  and  inaudible  murmurs.  Amongst  the 
students,  however,  whenever  they  happened  to  muster 
strongly,  were  many  fiery  young  men,  who  disdained 
to  temper  the  expression  of  their  feelings,  or  to  mod- 


6  KLOSTERHEIM. 

erate  their  tone.  A  large  group  of  these  at  one  corner 
of  the  square  drew  attention  upon  themselves,  as  well 
by  the  conspicuous  station  which  they  occupied  upon 
the  steps  of  a  church  portico,  as  by  the  loudness  of 
their  voices.  Towards  them  the  officer  directed  his 
steps  ;  and  probably  no  lover  of  scenes  would  have 
had  very  long  to  wait  for  some  explosion  between  par 
ties,  both  equally  ready  to  take  offence,  and  careless 
of  giving  it ;  but  at  that  moment,  from  an  opposite 
angle  of  the  square,  was  seen  approaching  a  young 
man  in  plain  clothes,  who  drew  off  the  universal  regard 
of  the  mob  upon  himself,  and  by  the  uproar  of  wel 
come  which  saluted  him,  occasioned  all  other  sounds 
to  be  stifled.  "  Long  life  to  our  noble  leader !  "  — 
"  Welcome  to  the  good  Max !  "  resounded  through  the 
square.  "  Hail  to  our  noble  brother  !  "  was  the  accla 
mation  of  the  students.  And  everybody  hastened  for 
ward  to  meet  him  with  an  impetuosity,  which,  for  the 
moment,  drew  off  all  attention  from  the  officer  ;  he  was 
left  standing  by  himself  on  the  steps  of  the  church, 
looking  down  upon  this  scene  of  joyous  welcome  — 
the  sole  spectator  who  neither  fully  understood  its 
meaning,  nor  shared  in  its  feelings. 

The  stranger,  who  wore  in  part  the  antique  costume 
of  the  university  of  Klosterheim,  except  where  he  still 
retained  underneath  a  travelling  dress,  stained  with 
recent  marks  of  the  roads  and  the  weather,  advanced 
amongst  his  friends  with  an  air  at  once  frank,  kind, 


KLOSTERHEIM.  7 

and  dignified.  He  replied  to  their  greetings  in  the 
language  of  cheerfulness  ;  but  his  features  expressed 
anxiety,  and  his  manner  was  hurried.  Whether  he 
had  not  observed  the  officer  overlooking  them,  or 
thought  that  the  importance  of  the  communications 
which  he  had  to  make  transcended  all  common 
restraints  of  caution,  there  was  little  time  to  judge  ; 
so  it  was,  at  any  rate,  that  without  lowering  his  voice, 
he  entered  abruptly  upon  his  business. 

"  Friends  !  I  have  seen  the  accursed  Holkerstein  ; 
I  have  penetrated  within  his  fortress.  With  my  own 
eyes  I  have  viewed  and  numbered  his  vile  assassins. 
They  are  in  strength  triple  the  utmost  amount  of  our 
friends.  Without  help  from  us,  our  kinsmen  are  lost. 
Scarce  one  of  us  but  will  lose  a  dear  friend  before 
three  nights  are  over,  should  Klosterheim  not  resolutely 
do  her  duty." 

"  She  shall,  she  shall ! "  exclaimed  a  multitude  of 
voices. 

"  Then,  friends,  it  must  be  speedily  ;  never  was 
there  more  call  for  sudden  resolution.  Perhaps  before 
to-morrow's  sun  shall  set,  the  sword  of  this  detested 
robber  will  be  at  their  throats.  For  he  has  some  intel 
ligence  (whence  I  know  not,  nor  how  much)  of  their 
approach.  Neither  think  that  Holkerstein  is  a  man 
acquainted  with  any  touch  of  mercy  or  relenting. 
Where  no  ransom  is  to  be  had,  he  is  in  those  circum 
stances,  that  he  will  and  must  deliver  himself  from  the 


8  KLOSTERHEIM. 

burden  of  prisoners  by  a  general  massacre.     Infants 
even  will  not  be  spared." 

Many  women  had  by  this  time  flocked  to  the  outer 
ring  of  the  listening  audience.  And  perhaps  for  their 
ears  in  particular  it  was  that  the  young  stranger  urged 
these  last  circumstances  ;  adding, 

"  Will  you  look  down  tamely  from  your  city  walls 
upon  such  another  massacre  of  the  innocents  as  we 
have  once  before  witnessed  ?  " 

"  Cursed  be  Holkerstein ! "  said  a  multitude  of 
voices. 

"  And  cursed  be  those  that  openly  or  secretly  sup 
port  him  ! "  added  one  of  the  students,  looking  ear 
nestly  at  the  officer. 

"  Amen  !  "  said  the  officer,  in  a  solemn  tone,  and 
looking  round  him  with  the  aspect  of  one  who  will 
not  suppose  himself  to  have  been  included  in  the 
suspicion. 

"  And,  friends,  remember  this,"  pursued  the  popular 
favorite  ;  '4  whilst  you  are  discharging  the  first  duties 
of  Christians  and  brave  men  to  those  who  are  now 
throwing  themselves  upon  the  hospitality  of  your  city, 
you  will  also  be  acquitting  yourselves  of  a  great  debt 
to  the  Emperor." 

.  "  Softly,  young  gentleman,  softly,"  interrupted  the 
officer ;  "  his  Serene  Highness,  my  liege  lord  and 
yours,  governs  here,  and  the  Emperor  has  no  part  in 
our  allegiance.  For  debts,  what  the  city  owes  to  the 


KLOSTERHEIM.  9 

Emperor,  she  will  pay.  But  men  and  horses  I  take 
it  —  " 

"  Are  precisely  the  coin  which  the  time  demands  ; 
these  will  best  please  the  Emperor,  and,  perhaps,  will 
suit  the  circumstances  of  the  city.  But,  leaving  the 
Emperor's  rights  as  a  question  for  lawyers,  —  you,  sir, 
are  a  soldier,  —  I  question  not,  a  brave  one,  —  will 
you  advise  his  Highness  the  Landgrave  to  look  down 
from  the  castle  windows  upon  a  vile  marauder,  strip 
ping  or  murdering  the  innocent  people  who  are  throw 
ing  themselves  upon  the  hospitality  of  this  ancient 
city  ?  " 

"  Ay,  sir,  that  will  I,  be  you  well  assured  —  the 
Landgrave  is  my  sovereign  —  '* 

"  Since  when  ?  Since  Thursday  week,  I  think  ;  for 
so  long  it  is  since  your  tertia*  first  entered  Kloster- 
heim.  But  in  that  as  you  will,  and  if  it  be  a  point  of 
honor  with  you  gentlemen  Walloons,  to  look  on  whilst 
women  and  children  are  butchered.  For  such  a  pur 
pose  no  man  is  my  sovereign  ;  and  as  to  the  Land 
grave  in  particular  —  " 

"  Nor  ours,  nor  ours,"  shouted  a  tumult  of  voices, 
which  drowned  the  young  student's  words  about  the 
Landgrave,  though  apparently  part  of  them  reached 
the  officer.  He  looked  round  in  quest  of  some  mili 
tary  comrades  who  might  support  him  in  the  voye  du 

*  An  old  Walloon  designation  for  a  battalion. 


10  KLOSTERHEIM. 

fait,  to  which,  at  this  point,  his  passion  prompted  him. 
But,  seeing  none,  he  exclaimed,  "  Citizens,  press  not 
this  matter  too  far  —  and  you,  young  man,  especially 
forbear  —  you  tread  upon  the  brink  of  treason  !  " 

A  shout  of  derision  threw  back  his  words. 

"  Of  treason,  I  say,"  he  repeated  furiously  ;  "  and 
such  wild  behavior  it  is,  (and  I  say  it  with  pain,)  that 
perhaps  even  now  is  driving  his  Highness  to  place 
your  city  under  martial  law." 

u  Martial  law !  did  you  hear  that  ?  "  ran  along  from 
mouth  to  mouth. 

"  Martial  law,  gentlemen,  I  say  ;  how  will  you  relish 
the  little  articles  of  that  code  ?  The  Provost  Martial 
makes  short  leave-takings.  Two  fathom  of  rope,  and 
any  of  these  pleasant  old  balconies  which  I  see 
around  me,  (pointing,  as  he  spoke,  to  the  antique 
galleries  of  wood  which  ran  round  the  middle  stories 
in  the  convent  of  St.  Peter,)  with  a  confessor,  or  none, 
as  the  Provost's  breakfast  may  chance  to  allow,  have 
cut  short,  to  my  knowledge,  the  freaks  of  many  a 
better  fellow  than  any  I  now  see  before  me." 

Saying  this,  he  bowed  with  a  mock  solemnity  all 
round  to  the  crowd,  which,  by  this  time,  had  increased 
in  number  and  violence.  Those  who  were  in  the  out 
ermost  circles,  and  beyond  the  distinct  hearing  of  what 
he  said,  had  been  discussing  with  heat  the  alarming 
confirmation  of  their  fears  in  respect  to  Holkerstein, 
or  listening  to  the  impassioned  narrative  of  a  woman, 


KLOSTERHEIM.  11 

who  had  already  seen  one  of  her  sons  butchered  by  this 
ruffian's  people  under  the  walls  of  the  city,  and  was 
now  anticipating  the  same  fate  for  her  last  surviving 
son  and  daughter,  in  case  they  should  happen  to  be 
amongst  the  party  now  expected  from  Vienna.  She 
had  just  recited  the  tragical  circumstances  of  her  son's 
death,  and  had  worked  powerfully  upon  the  sympa 
thizing  passions  of  the  crowd,  when,  suddenly,  at  a 
moment  so  unseasonable  for  the  officer,  some  imper 
fect  repetition  of  his  words  about  the  Provost  Marshal 
and  the  rope,  passed  rapidly  from  mouth  to  mouth.  It 
was  said  that  he  had  threatened  every  man  with  instant 
death  at  the  drum-head,  who  should  but  speculate  on 
assisting  his  friends  outside,  under  the  heaviest  extrem 
ities  of  danger  or  of  outrage.  The  sarcastic  bow,  and 
the  inflamed  countenance  of  the  officer,  were  seen  by 
glimpses  farther  than  his  words  extended.  Kindling 
eyes  and  lifted  arms  of  many  amongst  the  mob,  and 
chiefly  of  those  on  the  outside  who  had  heard  his 
words  the  most  imperfectly,  proclaimed  to  such  as  knew 
Klosterheim  and  its  temper  at  this  moment  the  danger 
in  which  he  stood.  Maximilian,  the  young  student, 
generously  forgot  his  indignation  in  concern  for  his 
immediate  safety.  Seizing  him  by  the  hand  he  ex 
claimed,  — 

"  Sir,  but  a  moment  ago  you  warned  me  that  I  stood 
on  the  brink  of  treason,  —  look  to  your  own  safety  at 


12  KLOSTERHEIM. 

present ;  for  the  eyes  of  some  whom  I  see  yonder  are 
dangerous." 

"  Young  gentleman,"  the  other  replied  contemptu 
ously,  "  I  presume  that  you  are  a  student ;  let  me 
counsel  you  to  go  back  to  your  books.  There  you 
will  be  in  your  element.  For  myself,  I  am  familiar 
with  faces  as  angry  as  these  —  and  hands  something 
more  formidable.  Believe  me,  I  see  nobody  here," 
and  he  affected  to  speak  with  imperturbable  coolness, 
but  his  voice  became  tremulous  with  passion,  "  whom 
I  can  even  esteem  worthy  of  a  soldier's  consideration." 

"  And  yet,  Colonel  von  Aremberg,  there  is  at  least 
one  man  here  who  has  had  the  honor  of  commanding 
men  as  elevated  as  yourself."  Saying  which,  he  hastily 
drew  from  his  bosom,  where  it  hung  suspended  from 
his  neck,  a  large  flat  tablet  of  remarkably  beautiful 
onyx,  on  one  side  of  which  was  sculptured  a  very  strik 
ing  face  ;  but  on  the  other,  which  he  presented  to  the 
gaze  of  the  Colonel,  was  a  fine  representation  of  an 
eagle  grovelling  in  the  dust,  and  beginning  to  expand 
its  wings  —  with  the  single  word  Resurgam  by  way  of 
motto. 

Never  was  revulsion  of  feeling  so  rapidly  exprcsssed 
on  any  man's  countenance.  The  Colonel  looked  but 
once  —  he  caught  the  image  of  the  bird  trailing  its 
pinions  in  the  dust  —  he  heard  the  word  Resurgam 
audibly  pronounced  —  his  color  fled  —  his  lips  grew 
livid  with  passion  —  and,  furiously  unsheathing  his 


KLOSTEKHETM.  13 

sword,  he  sprung,  with  headlong  forgetful  ness  of  time 
and  place,  upon  his  calm  antagonist.  With  the  ad 
vantage  of  perfect  self-possession,  Maximilian  found  it 
easy  to  parry  the  tempestuous  blows  of  the  Colonel ; 
and  he  would  perhaps  have  found  it  easy  to  disarm  him. 
But  at  this  moment  the  crowd,  who  had  been  with  great 
difficulty  represssed  by  the  more  thoughtful  amongst 
the  students,  burst  through  all  restraints.  In  the 
violent  outrage  offered  to  their  champion  and  leader, 
they  saw  naturally  a  full  confirmation  of  the  worst 
impressions  they  had  received  as  to  the  Colonel's 
temper  and  intention.  A  number  of  them  rushed 
forward  to  execute  summary  vengeance  ;  and  the  fore 
most  amongst  these,  a  mechanic  of  Klosterheim  dis 
tinguished  for  his  Herculean  strength,  with  one  blow 
stretched  Von  Aremberg  on  the  ground.  A  savage 
yell  announced  the  dreadful  fate  which  impended  over 
the  fallen  officer.  And  spite  of  the  generous  exertions 
made  for  his  protection  by  Maximilian  and  his  brother 
students,  it  is  probable  that  at  that  moment  no  human 
interposition  could  have  availed  to  turn  aside  the 
awakened  appetite  for  vengeance,  and  that  he  must 
have  perished,  but  for  the  accident  which  at  that  par 
ticular  instant  of  time  occurred  to  draw  off  the  atten 
tion  of  the  mob. 

A  signal  gun  from  a  watch-tower,  which  always  in 
those  unhappy  times  announced  the  approach  of 
strangers,  had  been  fired  about  ten  minutes  before ; 


14  KLOSTERHE1M. 

but,  in  the  turbulent  uproar  of  the  crowd,  it  had  passed 
unnoticed.  Hence  it  was,  that,  without  previous 
warning  to  the  mob  assembled  at  this  point,  a  mounted 
courier  now  sprung  into  the  square  at  full  gallop  on 
his  road  to  the  palace,  and  was  suddenly  pulled  up  by 
the  dense  masses  of  human  beings. 

"News,  news!"  exclaimed  Maximilian;  "tidings 
of  our  dear  friends  from  Vienna  !  "  This  he  said  with 
the  generous  purpose  of  diverting  the  infuriated  mob 
from  the  unfortunate  Von  Aremberg,  though  himself 
apprehending  that  the  courier  had  arrived  from  another 
quarter.  His  plan  succeeded  ;  the  mob  rushed  after 
the  horseman,  all  but  two  or  three  of  the  most  san 
guinary,  who,  being  now  separated  from  all  assistance, 
wrere  easily  drawn  off  from  their  prey.  The  oppor 
tunity  was  eagerly  usecKto  carry  off  the  Colonel, 
stunned  and  bleeding,  within  the  gates  of  a  Franciscan 
convent.  He  was  consigned  to  the  medical  care  of 
the  holy  fathers ;  and  Maximilian,  with  his  companions, 
then  hurried  away  to  the  chancery  of  the  palace, 
whither  the  courier  had  proceeded  with  his  despatches. 

These  were  interesting  in  the  highest  degree.  It 
had  been  doubted  by  many,  and  by  others  a  pretended 
doubt  had  been  raised  to  serve  the  Landgrave's  pur 
pose,  whether  the  great  cavalcade  from  Vienna  would 
be  likely  to  reach  the  entrance  of  the  forest  for  a  week 
or  more.  Certain  news  had  now  arrived,  and  was 
published  before  it  could  be  stifled,  that  they  and  all 


KLOSTERHEIM.  15 

their  baggage,  after  a  prosperous  journey  so  far,  would 
be  assembled  at  that  point  on  this  very  evening.  The 
courier  had  left  the  advanced  guard  about  noonday, 
with  an  escort  of  four  hundred  of  the  Black  Yagers 
from  the  Imperial  Guard,  and  two  hundred  of  Papen- 
heim's  Dragoons  at  Waldenhausen,  on  the  very  brink 
of  the  forest.  The  main  body  and  rear  were  expected 
to  reach  the  same  point  in  four  or  five  hours  ;  and  the 
whole  party  would  then  fortify  their  encampment  as 
much  as  possible  against  the  night  attack  which  they 
had  too  much  reason  to  apprehend. 

This  was  news  which,  in  bringing  a  respite  of  forty- 
eight  hours,  brought  relief  to  some  who  had  feared 
that  even  this  very  night  might  present  them  with  the 
spectacle  of  their  beloved  friends  engaged  in  a  bloody 
struggle  at  the  very  gates  of  Klosterheim  ;  for  it  was 
the  fixed  resolution  of  the  Landgrave  to  suffer  no 
diminution  of  his  own  military  strength,  or  of  the 
means  for  recruiting  it  hereafter.  Men,  horses,  arms, 
all  alike  were  rigorously  laid  under  embargo  by  the 
existing  government  of  the  city ;  and  such  was  the 
military  power  at  its  disposal,  reckoning  not  merely 
the  numerical  strength  in  troops,  but  also  the  power 
of  sweeping  the  main  streets  of  the  town,  and  several 
of  the  principal  roads  outside,  that  it  was  become  a 
matter  of  serious  doubt  whether  the  unanimous  insur 
rection  of  the  populace  had  a  chance  for  making  head 
against  the  government.  But  others  found  not  even  a 


16  KLOSTERHEIM. 

momentary  comfort  on  this  account.  They  considered 
that  perhaps  Waldenhausen  might  be  the  very  ground 
selected  for  the  murderous  attack.  There  was  here  a 
solitary  post-house,  but  no  town  or  even  village.  The 
forest  at  this  point  was  just  thirty-four  miles  broad  ; 
and  if  the  bloodiest  butchery  should  be  going  on  under 
cover  of  night,  no  rumor  of  it  could  be  borne  across 
the  forest  in  time  to  alarm  the  many  anxious  friends 
who  would  this  night  be  lying  awake  in  Klosterheim. 

A  slight  circumstance  served  to  barb  and  point  the 
public  distress,  which  otherwise  seemed  previously  to 
have  reached  its  utmost  height.  The  courier  had 
brought  a  large  budget  of  letters  to  private  individuals 
throughout  Klosterheim  ;  many  of  these  were  written 
by  children  unacquainted  with  the  dreadful  catastrophe 
which  threatened  them.  Most  of  them  had  been  long 
separated,  by  the  fury  of  the  war,  from  their  parents. 
They  had  assembled,  from  many  different  quarters,  at 
Vienna,  in  order  to  join  what  might  be  called,  in 
Oriental  phrase,  the  caravan.  Their  parents  had 
also,  in  many  instances,  from  places  equally  dispersed, 
assembled  at  Klosterheim,  —  and,  after  great  revolu 
tions  of  fortune,  they  were  now  going  once  more  to 
rejoin  each  other.  Their  letters  expressed  the  feelings 
of  hope  and  affectionate  pleasure  suitable  to  the  occa 
sion.  They  retraced  the  perils  they  had  passed  during 
the  twenty-six  days  of  their  journey', —  the  great 
towns,  heaths,  and  forests  they  had  traversed  since 


KLOSTERHEIM.  17 

leaving  the  gates  of  Vienna ;  and  expressed,  in  the 
innocent  terms  of  childhood,  the  pleasure  they  felt 
in  having  come  within  two  stages  of  the  gates  of  Klos- 
terhcim.  "  In  the  forest,"  said  they,  "  there  will  be 
no  more  dangers  to  pass  ;  no  soldiers  ;  nothing  worse 
than  wild  deer." 

Letters  written  in  these  terms,  contrasted  with  the 
mournful  realities  of  the  case,  sharpened  the  anguish 
of  fear  and  suspense  throughout  the  whole  city  ;  and 
Maximilian  with  his  friends,  unable  to  bear  the  loud 
expression  of  the  public  feelings,  separated  themselves 
from  the  tumultuous  crowds,  and  adjourning  to  the 
seclusion  of  their  college  rooms,  determined  to  consult, 
whilst  it  was  yet  not  too  late,  whether,  in  their  hope 
less  situation  for  openly  resisting  the  Landgrave  with 
out  causing  as  much  slaughter  as  they  sought  to 
prevent,  it  might  not  yet  be  possible  for  them  to  do 
something  in  the  way  of  resistance  to  the  bloody  pur 
poses  of  Holkerstein. 


18  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  travelling  party,  for  whom  so  much  anxiety 
was  felt  in  Klosterheim,  had  this  evening  reached 
Waldenhausen  without  loss  or  any  violent  alarm  ; 
and  indeed,  considering  the  length  of  their  journey, 
and  the  distracted  state  of  the  empire,  they  had  hitherto 
travelled  in  remarkable  security.  It  was  now  nearly 
a  month  since  they  had  taken  their  departure  from 
Vienna,  at  which  point  considerable  numbers  had 
assembled  from  the  adjacent  country  to  take  the  benefit 
of  their  convoy.  Some  of  these  they  had  dropped  at 
different  turns  in  their  route,  but  many  more  had 
joined  them  as  they  advanced';  for  in  every  consider 
able  city  they  found  large  accumulations  of  strangers, 
driven  in  for  momentary  shelter  from  the  storm  of 
war  as  it  spread  over  one  district  after  another  ;  and 
many  of  these  were  eager  to  try  the  chances  of  a 
change,  or,  upon  more  considerate  grounds,  preferred 
the  protection  of  a  place  situated  like  Klosterheim,  in 
a  nook  as  yet  unvisited  by  the  scourge  of  military 
execution.  Hence  it  happened,  that  from  a  party  of 


KLOSTERHEIM.  19 

seven  hundred  and  fifty,  with  an  escort  of  four  hun 
dred  yagers,  which  was  the  amount  of  their  numbers 
on  passing  through  the  gates  of  Vienna,  they  had  grad 
ually  swelled  into  a  train  of  sixteen  hundred,  including 
two  companies  of  dragoons  who  had  joined  them  by 
the  Emperor's  orders  at  one  of  the  fortified  posts. 

It  was  felt,  as  a  circumstance  of  noticeable  singular 
ity,  by  most  of  the  party,  that,  after  traversing  a  large 
part  of  Germany,  without  encountering  any  very  im 
minent  peril,  they  should  be  first  summoned  to  unusual 
vigilance,  and  all  the  most  jealous  precautions  of  fear, 
at  the  very  termination  of  their  journey.  In  all  parts 
of  their  route  they  had  met  with  columns  of  troops 
pursuing  their  march,  and  now  and  then  with  roving 
bands  of  deserters,  who  were  formidable  to  the  unpro 
tected  traveller.  Some  they  had  overawed  by  their 
display  of  military  strength  ;  from  others,  in  the  Impe 
rial  service,  they  had  received  cheerful  assistance  ;  and 
any  Swedish  corps,  which  rumor  had  presented  as  for 
midable  by  their  numbers,  they  had,  with  some  exer 
tion  of  forethought  and  contrivance,  constantly  evaded, 
either  by  a  little  detour,  or  by  a  temporary  halt  in 
some  place  of  strength.  But  now  it  was  universally 
known  that  they  were  probably  waylaid  by  a  desperate 
and  remorseless  freebooter,  who,  as  he  put  his  own 
trust  exclusively  in  the  sword,  allowed  nobody  to  hope 
for  any  other  shape  of  deliverance. 

Holkerstein,  the    military    robber,  was   one  of  the 


20  KLOSTERHEIM. 

many  monstrous  growths  which  had  arisen  upon  the 
ruins  of  social  order  in  this  long  and  unhappy  war. 
Drawing  to  himself  all  the  malecontents  of  his  own 
neighborhood,  and  as  many  deserters  from  the  regular 
armies  in  the  centre  of  Germany  as  he  could  tempt  to 
his  service  by  the  license  of  unlimited  pillage,  he  had 
rapidly  created  a  respectable  force  —  had  possessed 
himself  of  various  castles  in  Wirtemberg,  writhin  fifty 
or  sixty  miles  of  Klosterheim  —  had  attacked  and 
defeated  many  parties  of  regular  troops  sent  out  to 
reduce  him  —  and  by  great  activity  and  local  knowl 
edge  had  raised  himself  to  so  much  consideration, 
that  the  terror  of  his  name  had  spread  even  to  Vi 
enna  ;  and  the  escort  of  yagers  had  been  granted  by 
the  Imperial  government  as  much  on  his  account  as 
for  any  more  general  reason.  A  lady,  who  was  in 
some  way  related  to  the  Emperor's  family,  and,  by 
those  who  were  in  the  secret,  was  reputed  to  be  the 
Emperor's  natural  daughter,  accompanied  the  travel 
ling  party,  with  a  suite  of  female  attendants.  To  this 
lady,  who  was  known  by  the  name  of  the  Countess 
Paulina,  the  rest  of  the  company  held  themselves  in 
debted  for  their  escort ;  and  hence,  as  much  as  for 
her  rank,  she  was  treated  with  ceremonious  respect 
throughout  the  journey. 

The   Lady    Paulina   travelled   with    her    suite    in 
coaches,  drawn  by  the  most  powerful  artillery  horses, 


KLOSTERHEIM.  21 

that  could  be  furnished  at  the  various  military  posts.* 
On  this  day  she  had  been  in  the  rear ;  and  having  been 
delayed  by  an  accident,  she  was  waited  for  with  some 
impatience  by  the  rest  of  the  party,  the  latest  of  whom 
had  reached  Waldenhausen  early  in  the  afternoon.  It 
was  sunset  before  her  train  of  coaches  arrived ;  and,  as 
the  danger  from  Holkerstein  commenced  about  this 
point,  they  were  immediately  applied  to  the  purpose  of 
strengthening  their  encampment  against  a  night  attack, 
by  chaining  them,  together  with  all  the  baggage  carts, 
in  a  triple  line,  across  the  different  avenues  which 
seemed  most  exposed  to  a  charge  of  cavalry.  Many 
other  preparations  were  made ;  the  yagers  and  dra 
goons  made  arrangements  for  mounting  with  ease  on 
the  first  alarm  ;  strong  outposts  were  established  ;  sen 
tinels  posted  all  round  the  encampment,  who  were 
duly  relieved  eveiy  hour,  in  consideration  of  the  ex 
treme  cold ;  and  upon  the  whole,  as  many  veteran 
officers  were  amongst  them,  the  great  body  of  the 
travellers  were  now  able  to  apply  themselves  to  the 
task  of  preparing  their  evening  refreshments  with  some 
degree  of  comfort ;  for  the  elder  part  of  the  company 
saw  that  every  precaution  had  been  taken,  and  the 
younger  were  not  aware  of  any  extraordinary  danger. 

*  Coaches  were  common  in  Germany  at  this  time  amongst 
people  of  rank  :  at  the  reinstatement  of  the  Dukes  of  Mecklen- 
burgh,  by  Gustavus  Adolphus,  though  without  much  notice, 
more  than  fourscore  of  coaches  were  assembled. 


22  KLOSTERHEIM. 

Waldenhausen  had  formerly  been  a  considerable 
village.  At  present  there  was  no  more  than  one  house, 
surrounded,  however,  by  §uch  a  large  establishment  of 
barns,  stables,  and  other  outhouses,  that,  at  a  little  dis 
tance,  it  wore  the  appearance  of  a  tolerable  hamlet. 
Most  of  the  outhouses,  in  their  upper  stories,  were  filled 
with  hay  or  straw ;  and  there  the  women  and  children 
prepared  their  couches  for  the  night,  as  the  warmest 
resorts  \in  so  severe  a  season.  The  house  was  fur 
nished  in  the  plainest  style  of  a  farmer's  ;  but  in  other 
respects  it  was  of  a  superior  order,  being  roomy  and 
extensive.  The  best  apartment  had  been  reserved  for 
the  Lady  Paulina  and  her  attendants  ;  one  for  the  offi 
cers  of  most  distinction  in  the  escort  or  amongst  the 
travellers  ;  the  rest  had  been  left  to  the  use  of  the 
travellers  indiscriminately. 

In  passing  through  the  hall  of  entrance,  Paulina  had 
noticed  a  man  of  striking  and  farouche  appearance, 
hair  black  and  matted,  eyes  keen  and  wild,  and  beam 
ing  with  malicious  cunning,  who  surveyed  her  as  she 
passed  with  a  mixed  looked  of  insolence  and  curiosity 
that  involuntarily  made  her  shrink.  He  had  been  half- 
reclining  carelessly  against  the  wall,  when  she  first 
entered,  but  rose  upright  with  a  sudden  motion  as  she 
passed  him  —  not  probably  from  any  sentiment  of 
respect,  but  under  the  first  powerful  impression  of  sur 
prise  on  seeing  a  young  woman  of  peculiarly  splendid 
figure  and  impressive  beauty,  under  circumstances  so 


KLOSTERHEIM.  23 

little  according  with  what  might  bo  su posed  her  natu 
ral  pretensions.  The  dignity  of  her  deportment,  and 
the  numbers  of  her  attendants,  sufficiently  proclaimed 
the  luxurious  accommodations  which  her  habits  might 
have  taught  her  to  expect ;  and  she  was  now  enter 
ing  a  dwelling  which  of  late  years  had  received  few 
strangers  of  her  sex,  and  probably  none  but  those  of 
the  lowest  rank. 

"  Know  your  distance,  fellow  !  "  exclaimed  one  of 
the  waiting  women  angrily,  noticing  his  rude  gaze,  and 
the  effect  upon  her  mistress. 

"  Good  faith,  madam,  I  would  that  the  distance  be 
tween  us  were  more  ;  it  was  no  prayers  of  mine,  I 
promise  you,  that  brought  upon  me  a  troop  of  horses 
to  Waldenhausen,  enough  in  one  twelve  hours  to  eat 
me  out  a  margrave's  ransom.  Light  thanks  I  reckon 
on  from  yagers ;  and  the  payments  of  dragoons  will 
pass  current  for  as  little  in  the  forest,  as  a  lady's  frown 
in  Waldenhausen." 

"  Churl !  "  said  an  officer  of  dragoons,  "  how  know 
you  that  our  payments  are  light  ?  The  Emperor  takes 
nothing  without  payment ;  surely  not  from  such  as 
you.  But  d  propos  of  ransoms,  what  now  might  be 
Holkerstein's  ransom  for  a  farmer's  barns  stuffed  with 
a  three  years'  crop  ?  " 

"  How  mean  you  by  that,  captain  ?  The  crop's  my 
own,  and  never  was  in  worse  hands  than  my  own. 
God  send  it  no  worse  luck  to-day  !  " 


24  KLOSTERHEIM. 

"  Come,  come,  sir,  you  understand  me  better  than 
that ;  nothing  at  Waldenhausen,  I  take  it,  is  yours  or 
any  man's,  unless  by  license  from  Holkerstein.  And 
when  I  see  so  many  goodly  barns  and  garners,  with 
their  jolly  charges  of  hay  and  corn,  that  would  feed 
one  of  Holkerstein's  garrisons  through  two  sieges,  I 
know  what  to  think  of  him  who  has  saved  them  scot- 
free.  He  that  serves  a  robber  must  do  it  on  a  robber's 
terms.  To  such  bargains,  there  goes  but  one  word  ; 
and  that  is  the  robber's.  But  come,  man,  I  am  not  thy 
judge.  Only  I  would  have  my  soldiers  on  their  guard 
at  one  of  Holkerstein's  outposts.  And  thee,  farmer,  I 
would  have  to  remember  that  an  Emperor's  grace  may 
yet  stand  thee  in  stead,  when  a  robber  is  past  helping 
thee  to  a  rope." 

The  soldiers  laughed,  but  took  their  officer's  hint  to 
watch  the  motions  of  a  man,  whose  immunity  from 
spoil,  in  circumstances  so  tempting  to  a  military  rob 
ber's  cupidity,  certainly  argued  some  collusion  with 
Holkerstein. 

The  Lady  Paulina  had  passed  on  during  this  dia 
logue  into  an  inner  room,  hoping  to  have  found  the 
<quiet  and  the  warmth  which  were  now  become  so 
needful  to  her  repose.  But  the  antique  stove  was  too 
much  out  of  repair  to  be  used  with  benefit ;  the  wood 
work  was  decayed,  and  admitted  currents  of  cold  air  ; 
and,  above  all,  from  the  slightness  of  the  partitions, 
the  noise  and  tumult  in  a  house  occupied  by  soldiers 


KLOSTERHEIM.  25 

and  travellers  proved  so  incessant,  that,  after  taking 
refreshments  with  her  attendants,  she  resolved  to  ad 
journ  for  the  night  to  her  coach  ;  which  afforded  much 
superior  resources,  both  in  warmth  and  in  freedom 
from  noise. 

The  carriage  of  the  Countess  was  one  of  those 
which  had  been  posted  at  an  angle  of  the  encampment, 
and  on  that  side  terminated  the  line  of  defences  ;  for  a 
deep  mass  of  wood,  which  commenced  where  the  car 
riages  ceased,  seemed  to  present  a  natural  protection 
on  that  side  against  the  approach  of  cavalry ;  in  reality, 
from  the  quantity  of  tangled  roots  and  the  inequalities 
of  the  ground,  it  appeared  difficult  for  a  single  horse 
man  to  advance  even  a  few  yards  without  falling.  And 
upon  this  side  it  had  been  judged  sufficient  to  post  a 
single  sentinel. 

Assured  by  the  many  precautions  adopted,  and  by 
the  cheerful  language  of  the  officer  on  guard,  who  at 
tended  her  to  the  carriage  door,  Paulina,  with  one 
attendant,  took  her  seat  in  the  coach,  where  she  had 
the  means  of  fencing  herself  sufficiently  from  the  cold 
by  the  weighty  robes  of  minever  and  ermine  which  her 
ample  wardrobe  afforded  ;  and  the  large  dimensions  of 
the  coach  enabled  her  to  turn  it  to  the  use  of  a  sofa  or 
couch. 

Youth  and  health  sleep  well ;  and  with  all  the  means 
and  appliances  of  the  Lady  Paulina,  wearied  besides 
as  she  had  been  with  the  fatigue  of  a  day's  march, 


26  KLOSTERHEIM. 

performed  over  roads  almost  impassable  from  rough 
ness,  there  was  little  reason  to  think  that  she  would 
miss  the  benefit  of  her  natural  advantages.  Yet  sleep 
failed  to  come,  or  came  only  by  fugitive  snatches, 
which  presented  her  with  tumultuous  dreams  —  some 
times  of  the  Emperor's  court  in  Vienna,  sometimes  of 
the  vast  succession  of  troubled  scenes  and  fierce  faces 
that  had  passed  before  her  since  she  had  quitted  that 
city.  At  one  moment  she  beheld  the  travelling  equip 
ages  and  far- stretching  array  of  her  own  party,  with 
their  military  escort  filing  off  by  torchlight  under  the 
gateway  of  ancient  cities ;  at  another,  the  ruined  vil 
lages,  with  their  dismantled  cottages  —  doors  and  Win 
dows  torn  off,  walls  scorched  with  fire,  and  a  few 
gaunt  dogs,  with  a  wolf-like  ferocity  in  their  bloodshot 
eyes,  prowling  about  the  ruins,  —  objects  that  had 
really  so  often  afflicted  her  heart.  Waking  from  those 
distressing  spectacles,  she  would  fail  into  a  fitful  dose, 
which  presented  her  with  remembrances  still  more 
alarming  ;  bands  of  fierce  deserters,  that  eyed  her 
travelling  party  with  a  savage  rapacity  which  did  not 
confess  any  powerful  sense  of  inferiority  ;  and  in  the 
very  fields  which  they  had  once  cultivated,  now  silent 
and  tranquil  from  utter  desolation,  the  mouldering 
bodies  of  the  unoffending  peasants,  left  un honored 
with  the  rites  of  sepulture T  in  many  places  from  the 
mere  extermination  of  the  whole  rural  population  of 
their  neighborhood.  To  these  succeeded  a  wild  chaos 


KLOSTERHEIM.  27 

of  figures,  in  which  the  dress  and  tawny  features  of 
Bohemian  gipsies  conspicuously  prevailed,  just  as  she 
had  seen  them  of  late  making  war  on  all  parties  alike  ; 
and  in  the  person  of  their  leader,  her  fancy  suddenly 
restored  to  her  a  vivid  resemblance  of  their  suspicious 
host  at  their  present  quarters,  and  of  the  malicious 
gaze  with  which  he  had  disconcerted  her. 

A  sudden  movement  of  the  carriage  awakened  her, 
and,  by  the  light  of  a  lamp  suspended  from  a  project 
ing  bough  of  a  tree,  she  beheld,  on  looking  out,  the 
sallow  countenance  of  the  very  man  whose  image  had 
so  recently  infested  her  dreams.  The  light  being  con 
siderably  nearer  to  him  than  to  herself,  she  could  see 
without  being  distinctly  seen ;  and,  having  already 
heard  the  very  strong  presumptions  against  this  man's 
honesty,  which  had  been  urged  by  the  officer,  and 
without  reply  from  the  suspected  party,  she  now  deter 
mined  to  watch  him. 


28  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  night  was  pitch  dark,  and  Paulina  felt  a  mo 
mentary  terror  creep  over  her  as  she  looked  into  the 
massy  blackness  of  the  dark  alleys  which  ran  up  into 
the  woods,  forced  into  deeper  shade  under  the  glare  of 
the  lamps  from  the  encampment.  She  now  reflected 
with  some  alarm  that  the  forest  commenced  at  this 
point,  stretching  away  (as  she  had  been  told)  in  some 
directions  upwards  of  fifty  miles ;  and  that,  if  the  post 
occupied  by  their  encampment  should  be  inaccessible 
on  this  side  to  cavalry,  it  might,  however,  happen  that 
persons  with  the  worst  designs  could  easily  penetrate 
on  foot  from  the  concealments  of  the  forest,  in  which 
case  she  herself,  and  the  splendid  booty  of  her  car 
riage,  might  be  the  first  and  easiest  prey.  Even  at 
this  moment,  the  very  worst  of  those  atrocious  wretches 
whom  the  times  had  produced,  might  be  lurking  in 
concealment,  with  their  eyes  fastened  upon  the  weak 
or  exposed  parts  of  the  encampment,  and  waiting  until 
midnight  should  have  buried  the  majority  of  their 
wearied  party  into  the  profoundest  repose,  in  order 
then  to  make  a  combined  and  murderous  attack. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  29 

Under  the  advantages  of  sudden  surprise  and  darkness, 
together  with  the  knowledge  which  they  would  not 
fail  to  possess  of  every  road  and  by-path  in  the  woods, 
it  could  scarcely  be  doubted  that  they  might  strike  a 
very  effectual  blow  at  the  Vienna  caravan,  which  had 
else  so  nearly  completed  their  journey  without  loss  or 
memorable  privations  ;  —  and  the  knowledge  which 
Holkerstein  possessed  of  the  short  limits  within  which 
his  opportunities  were  now  circumscribed,  would  doubt 
less  prompt  him  to  some  bold  and  energetic  effort. 

Thoughts  unwelcome  as  these,  Paulina  found  leisure 
to  pursue,  for  the  ruffian  landlord  had  disappeared 
almost  at  the  same  moment  when  she  first  caught  a 
glimpse  of  him.  In  the  deep  silence  which  succeeded, 
she  could  not  wean  herself  from  the  painful  fascination 
of  imagining  the  very  worst  possibilities  to  which  their 
present  situation  was  liable.  She  imaged  to  herself 
the  horrors  of  a  camisade,  as  she  had  often  heard  it 
described  ;  she  saw,  in  apprehension,  the  savage  band 
of  confederate  butchers,  issuing  from  the  profound 
solitudes  of  the  forest,  in  white  shirts  drawn  over  their 
armor ;  she  seemed  to  read  the  murderous  features, 
lighted  up  by  the  gleam  of  lamps  —  the  stealthy  step, 
and  the  sudden  gleam  of  sabres  ;  then  the  yell  of 
assault,  the  scream  of  agony,  the  camp  floating  with 
blood ;  the  fury,  the  vengeance,  the  pursuit ;  —  all 
these  circumstances  of  scenes  at  that  time  too  familiar 
to  Germany,  passed  rapidly  before  her  mind. 


30  KLOSTERHEIM. 

But  after  some  time,  as  the  tranquillity  continued,  her 
nervous  irritation  gave  way  to  less  agitating  but  pro 
found  sensibilities.  Whither  was  her  lover  withdrawn 
from  her  knowledge  ?  and  why  ?  and  for  how  long  a 
time  ?  What  an  age  it  seemed  since  she  had  last  seen 
him  at  Vienna  !  That  the  service  upon  which  he  was 
employed  would  prove  honorable,  she  felt  assured. 
But  was  it  dangerous  ?  Alas  !  in  Germany  there  was 
none  otherwise.  Would  it  soon  restore  him  to  her 
society?  And  why  had  he  been  of  late  so  unaccount 
ably  silent  ?  Or  again,  had  he  been  silent  ?  Perhaps 
his  letters  had  been  intercepted,  — nothing,  in  fact,  was 
more  common  at  that  time.  The  rarity  was,  if  by  any 
accident  a  letter  reached  its  destination.  From  one 
of  the  worst  solicitudes  incident  to  such  a  situation, 
Paulina  was,  however,  delivered  by  her  own  nobility  of 
mind,  which  raised  her  above  the  meanness  of  jealousy. 
Whatsoever  might  have  happened,  or  into  whatever 
situations  her  lover  might  have  been  thrown,  she  felt 
no  fear  that  the  fidelity  of  his  attachment  could  have 
wandered  or  faltered  for  a  moment ;  —  that  worst  of 
pangs  the  Lady  Paulina  was  raised  above,  equally  by 
her  just  confidence  in  herself  and  in  her  lover.  But 
yet,  though  faithful  to  her,  might  he  not  be  ill  ?  Might 
he  not  be  languishing  in  some  one  of  the  many  distresses 
incident  to  war  ?  Might  he  not  even  have  perished  ? 

That  fear  threw  her  back  upon  the  calamities  and 
horrors  of  war  ;  and  insensibly  her  thoughts  wandered 


KLOSTERHEIM.  31 

round  to  the  point  from  which  they  had  started,  of  her 
own  immediate  situation.  Again  she  searched  with 
penetrating  eyes  the  black  avenues  of  the  woods,  as 
they  lay  forced  ahnost  into  strong  relief  and  palpable 
substance  by  the  glare  of  the  lamps.  Again  she 
fancied  to  herself  the  murderous  hearts  and  glaring 
eyes  which  even  now  might  be  shrouded  by  the  silent 
masses  of  forest  which  stretched  before  her, : —  when 
suddenly  a  single  light  shot  its  rays  from  what  appear 
ed  to  be  a  considerable  distance  in  one  of  the  avenues. 
Paulina's  heart  beat  fast  at  this  alarming  spectacle. 
Immediately  after,  the  light  was  shaded,  or  in  some 
way  disappeared.  But  this  gave  the  more  reason  for 
terror.  It  was  now  clear  that  human  beings  were 
moving  in  the  woods.  No  public  road  lay  in  that 
direction  ;  nor  in  so  unpopulous  a  region,  could  it  be 
imagined  that  travellers  were  likely  at  that  time  to  be 
abroad.  From  their  own  encampment,  nobody  could 
have  any  motive  for  straying  to  a  distance  on  so  severe 
a  night,  and  at  a  thne  when  he  would  reasonably  draw 
upon  himself  the  danger  of  being  shot  by  the  night 
guard. 

This  last  consideration  reminded  Paulina  suddenly, 
as  of  a  very  singular  circumstance,  that  the  appearance 
of  the  light  had  been  followed  by  no  challenge  from 
the  sentinel.  And  then  first  she  remembered  that  for 
some  time  she  had  ceased  to  hear  the  sentinel's  step, 
or  the  rattle  of  his  bandoleers.  Hastily  looking  along 


32  KLOSTERHEIM. 

the  path,  she  discovered  too  certainly,  that  the  single 
sentinel  posted  on  that  side  of  their  encampment  was 
absent  from  his  station.  It  might  have  been  supposed 
that  he  had  fallen  asleep  from  the  severity  of  the  cold  ; 
but  in  that  case  the  lantern  which  he  carried  attached 
to  his  breast  would  have  continued  to  burn  ;  whereas 
all  traces  of  light  had  vanished  from  the  path  which  he 
perambulated.  The  error  was  now  apparent  to  Pau 
lina,  both  in  having  appointed  no  more  than  one  senti 
nel  to  this  quarter,  and  also  in  the  selection  of  his  beat. 
There  had  been  frequent  instances  throughout  this  war 
in  which  by  means  of  a  net,  such  as  that  carried  by 
the  Roman  retiarius  in  the  contests  of  the  gladiators, 
and  dexterously  applied  by  two  persons  from  behind,  a 
sentinel  had  been  suddenly  muffled,  gagged,  and  car 
ried  off,  without  much  difficulty.  For  such  a  purpose 
it  was  clear  that  the  present  sentinel's  range,  lying  by 
the  margin  of  a  wood  from  which  his  minutest  move 
ments  could  be  watched  at  leisure  by  those  who  lay  in 
utter  darkness  themselves,  afforded  every  possible 
facility.  Paulina  scarcely  doubted  that  he  had  been 
indeed  carried  off,  in  some  such  way,  and  not  impossi 
bly  almost  whilst  she  was  looking  on. 

She  would  now  have  called  aloud,  and  have  alarmed 
the  camp,  —  but  at  the  very  moment  when  she  let  down 
the  glass,  the  savage  landlord  reappeared,  and,  menac 
ing  her  with  a  pistol,  awed  her  into  silence.  He  bore 
upon  his  head  a  moderate-sized  trunk,  or  portmanteau 


KLOSTERHEIM.  33 

which  appeared,  by  the  imperfect  light,  to  be  that  in 
which  some  despatches  had  been  lodged  from  the  Im 
perial  government  to  different  persons  in  Klosterheim. 
This  had  been  cut  from  one  of  the  carriages  in  her  suite ; 
and  her  anxiety  was  great  on  recollecting  that,  from 
some  words  of  the  Emperor's,  she  had  reason  to 
believe  one  at  least  of  the  letters  which  it  conveyed  to 
be  in  some  important  degree  connected  with  the  inter 
ests  of  her  lover.  Satisfied,  however,  that  he  would 
not  find  it  possible  to  abscond  with  so  burdensome  an 
article  in  any  direction  that  could  save  him  from 
instant  pursuit  and  arrest,  she  continued  to  watch  for 
the  moment  when  she  might  safely  raise  the  alarm. 
But  great  was  her  consternation  when  she  saw  a  dark 
figure  steal  from  a  thicket,  receive  the  trunk  from  the 
other,  and  instantly  retreat  into  the  deepest  recesses  of 
the  forest. 

Her  fears  now  gave  way  to  the  imminence  of  so 
important  a  loss ;  and  she  endeavored  hastily  to  open 
the  window  of  the  opposite  door.  But  this  had  been  so 
effectually  barricaded  against  the  cold,  that  she  failed 
in  her  purpose,  and  immediately  turning  back  to  the 
other  side  she  called  loudly  —  "  Guard  !  guard  !  " 
The  press  of  carriages,  however,  at  this  point,  so  far 
deadened  her  voice,  that  it  was  some  time  before  the 
alarm  reached  the  other  side  of  the  encampment 
distinctly  enough  to  direct  their  motions  to  her  sum 
mons.  Half  a  dozen  yagers  and  an  officer  at  length 
3 


34  KLOSTERHEIIVI. 

presented  themselves  ;  but  the  landlord  had  disappear 
ed,  she  knew  not  in  what  direction.  Upon  explaining 
the  circumstances  of  the  robbery,  however,  the  officer 
caused  his  men  to  light  a  number  of  torches  and 
advance  into  the  wood.  But  the  ground  was  so  im 
practicable  in  most  places  from  tangled  roots  and 
gnarled  stumps  of  trees,  that  it  was  with  difficulty  they 
could  keep  their  footing.  They  were  also  embar 
rassed  by  the  crossing  shadows  from  the  innumerable 
boughs  above  them  ;  and  a  situation  of  greater  per 
plexity  for  effective  pursuit  it  was  scarcely  possible  to 
imagine.  Everywhere  they  saw  alleys,  arched  high 
overhead,  and  resembling  the  aisles  of  a  cathedral,  as 
much  in  form  as  in  the  perfect  darkness  which  reigned 
in  both  at  this  solemn  hoilr  of  midnight,  stretching 
away  apparently  without  end,  but  more  and  more 
obscure,  until  impenetrable  blackness  terminated  the 
long  vista.  Now  and  then  a  dusky  figure  was  seen  to 
cross  at  some  distance  ;  but  these  were  probably  deer ; 
and  when  loudly  challenged  by  the  yagers,  no  sound 
replied  but  the  vast  echoes  of  the  forest.  Between 
these  interminable  alleys,  which,  radiated  as  from  a 
centre  at  this  point,  there  were  generally  thickets  inter 
posed.  Sometimes  the  wood  was  more  open,  and 
clear  of  all  undergrowth — shrubs,  thorns,  or  brambles 
—  for  a  considerable  distance,  so  that  a  single  file  of 
horsemen  might  have  penetrated  for  perhaps  half  a 
mile  ;  but  belts  of  thicket  continually  checked  their 


KLOSTERHEIM.  35 

progress,  and  obliged  them  to  seek  their  way  back  to 
some  one  of  the  long  vistas  which  traversed  the  woods 
between  the  frontiers  of  Suabia  and  Bavaria. 

In  this  perplexity  of  paths,  the  officer  halted  his 
party  to  consider  of  his  further  course.  At  this  mo 
ment  one  of  the  yagers  protested  that  he  had  seen  a 
man's  hat  and  face  rise  above  a  thicket  of  bushes, 
apparently  not  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  yards 
from  their  own  position.  Upon  that,  the  party  were 
ordered  to  advance  a  little,  and  to  throw  in  a  volley  as 
nearly  as  could  be  judged,  into  the  very  spot  pointed 
out  by  the  soldier.  It  seemed  that  he  had  not  been 
mistaken  ;  for  a  loud  laugh  of  derision  rose  immedi 
ately  a  little  to  the  left  of  the  bushes.  The  laughter 
swelled  upon  the  silence  of  the  night,  and  in  the  next 
moment  was  taken  up  by  another  on  the  right,  which 
again  was  echoed  by  a  third  on  the  rear.  Peal  after 
peal  of  tumultuous  and  scornful  laughter  resounded 
from  the  remoter  solitudes  of  the  forest ;  and  the 
officer  stood  aghast  to  hear  this  proclamation  of  defi 
ance  from  a  multitude  of  enemies,  where  he  had  an 
ticipated  no  more  than  the  very  party  engaged  in  the 
robbery. 

To  advance  in  pursuit  seemed  how  both  useless  and 
dangerous.  The  laughter  had  probably  been  designed 
expressly  to  distract  his  choice  of  road  at  a  time  when 
the  darkness  and  intricacies  of  the  ground  had  already 
made  it  sufficiently  indeterminate.  In  which  direction, 


36  KLOSTERHEIM. 

out  of  so  many  whence  he  had  heard  the  sounds,  a 
pursuit  could  be  instituted  with  any  chance  of  being 
effectual,  seemed  now  as  hopeless  a  subject  of  deliber 
ation  as  it  was  possible  to  imagine.  Still,  as  he  had  been 
made  aware  of  the  great  importance  attached  to  the 
trunk,  which  might,  very  probably,  contain  despatches 
interesting  to  the  welfare  of  Klosterheim,  and  the 
whole  surrounding  territory,  he  felt  grieved  to  retire 
without  some  further  attempt  for  its  recovery.  And 
he  stood  for  a  few  moments  irresolutely  debating  with 
himself,  or  listening  to  the  opinions  of  his  men. 

His  irresolution  was  very  abruptly  terminated.  All 
at  once,  upon  the  main  road  from  Klosterheim,  at  an 
angle  about  half  a  mile  a-head,  where  it  first  wheeled 
into  sight  from  Waldenhausen,  a  heavy,  thundering 
trot  was  heard  ringing  from  the  frozen  road,  as  of  a 
regular  body  of  cavalry  advancing  rapidly  upon  their 
encampment.  There  was  no  time  to  be  lost;  the 
officer  instantly  withdrew  his  yagers  from  the  wood, 
posted  a  strong  guard  at  the  wood  side,  sounded  the 
alarm  throughout  the  camp,  agreeably  to  the  system 
of  signals  previously  concerted,  mounted  about  thirty 
men,  whose  horses  and  themselves  were  kept  in  per 
fect  equipment  during  each  of  the  night  watches,  and 
then  advancing  to  the  head  of  the  barriers,  prepared  to 
receive  the  party  of  strangers  in  whatever  character 
they  should  happen  to  present  themselves. 

All  this  had  been  done  with  so  much  promptitude  , 


KLOSTERHEIM.  37 

and  decision,  that  on  reaching  the  barriers,  the  officer 
found  the  strangers  not  yet  come  up.  In  fact,  they 
had  halted  at  a  strong  outpost  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
in  advance  of  Waldenhausen  ;  and  though  one  or  two 
patrollers  came  dropping  in  from  by-roads  on  the 
forest  heatl^  who  reported  them  as  enemies,  from  the 
indistinct  view  they  had  caught  of  their  equipments,  it 
had  already  become  doubtful  from  their  movements 
whether  they  would  really  prove  so. 

Two  of  their  party  were  now  descried  upon  the 
road,  and  nearly  close  up  with  the  gates  of  Walden 
hausen  ;  they  were  accompanied  by  several  of  the 
guard  from  the  outpost,  and,  immediately  on  being 
hailed,  they  exclaimed,  "  Friends,  and  from  Kloster- 
hei/n !  " 

He  who  spoke  was  a  young  cavalier,  magnificent 
alike  in  his  person,  dress,  and  style  of  his  appoint 
ments.  He  was  superbly  mounted,  wore  the  deco 
rations  of  a  major-general  in  the  Imperial  service, 
and  scarcely  needed  the  explanations  which  he  gave, 
to  exonerate  himself  from  the  suspicion  of  being  a 
leader  of  robbers,  under  Holkerstein.  Fortunately 
enough,  also,  at  a  period  when  officers  of  the  most 
distinguished  merit  were  too  often  unfaithful  to  their 
engagements,  or  passed  with  so  much  levity  from 
service  to  service,  as  to  justify  an  indiscriminate  jeal 
ousy  of  all  who  were  not  in  the  public  eye,  it  happened 
that  the  officer  of  the  watch,  formerly,  when  mount- 


38  KLOSTERHEIM. 

ing  guard  at  the  Imperial  palace,  had  been  familiar 
with  the  personal  appearance  of  the  cavalier,  and 
could  speak  of  his  own  knowledge  to  the  favor  which 
he  had  enjoyed  at  the  Emperor's  court.  After  short 
explanations,  therefore,  he  was  admitted,  and  thank 
fully  welcomed  in  the  camp ;  and  the  officer  of  the 
guard  departed  to  receive  with  honor  the  generous 
volunteers  at  the  outpost. 

Meantime,  the  alarm,  which  was  general  throughout 
the  camp,  had  assembled  all  the  women  to  one  quar 
ter,  where  a  circle  of  carriages  had  been  formed  for 
their  protection.  In  their  centre,  distinguished  by  her 
height  and  beauty,  stood  the  Lady  Paulina,  dispensing 
assistance  from  her  wardrobe  to  any  who  were  suffer 
ing  from  cold  under  this  sudden  summons  to  night 
air,  and  animating  others,  who  were  more  than  usually 
depressed,  by  the  aids  of  consolation  and  of  cheerful 
prospects.  She  had  just  turned  her  face  away  from 
the  passage  by  which  this  little  sanctuary  communi 
cated  with  the  rest  of  the  camp,  and  was  in  the  act  of 
giving  directions  to  one  of  her  attendants,  when  sud 
denly  a  well-known  voice  fell  upon  her  ear.  It  was 
the  voice  of  the  stranger  cavalier,  whose  natural  gal 
lantry  had  prompted  him  immediately  to  relieve  the 
alarm  which,  unavoidably,  he  had  himself  created  ; 
in  a  few  words,  he  was  explaining  to  the  assembled 
females  of  the  camp,  in  what  character,  and  with  how 
many  companions  he  had  come.  But  a  shriek  from 


KLOSTERHEIM.  39 

Paulina  interrupted  him.  Involuntarily  she  held  out 
her  open  arms,  and  involuntarily  she  exclaimed, 
"  Dearest  Maximilian  ! "  On  his  part,  the  young 
cavalier,  for  a  moment  or  two  at  first,  was  almost 
deprived  of  speech,  by  astonishment  and  excess  of 
pleasure.  Bounding  forward,  hardly  conscious  of 
those  who  surrounded  them,  with  a  rapture  of  faithful 
love,  he  caught  the  noble  young  beauty  into  his  arms, 
a  movement  to  which,  in  the  frank  innocence  of  her 
heart,  she  made  no  resistance  ;  folded  her  to  his  bo 
som,  and  impressed  a  fervent  kiss  upon  her  lips,  whilst 
the  only  words  that  came  to  his  own  were,  "  Beloved 
Paulina  !  oh,  most  beloved  lady  !  what  chance  has 
brought  you  hither  ?  " 


40  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

IN  those  days  of  tragical  confusion  and  of  sudden 
catastrophe,  alike  for  better  or  for  worse,  when  the 
rendings  asunder  of  domestic  charities  were  often 
without  an  hour's  warning,  when  re-unions  were  as 
dramatic  and  as  unexpected  as  any  which  are  exhib 
ited  on  the  stage,  and  too  often  separations  were 
eternal,  —  the  circumstances  of  the  times  concurred 
with  the  spirit  of  manners  to  sanction  a  tone  of  frank 
expression  to  the  stronger  passions,  which  the  reserve 
of  modern  habits  would  not  entirely  license.  And 
hence,  not  less  than  from  the  noble  ingenuousness  of 
their  natures,  the  martial  young  cavalier  and  the  su 
perb  young  beauty  of  the  Imperial  house,  on  recovering 
themselves  from  their  first  transports,  found  no  motives 
to  any  feeling  of  false  shame,  either  in  their  own 
consciousness,  or  in  the  reproving  looks  of  any  who 
stood  around  them.  On  the  contrary,  as  the  grown 
up  spectators  were  almost  exclusively  female,  to  whom 
the  evidences  of  faithful  love  are  never  other  than  a 
serious  subject,  or  naturally  associated  with  the  ludi 
crous  ;  many  of  them  expressed  their  sympathy  with 
the  scene  before  them  by  tears,  and  all  of  them  in 


KLOSTERHEIM.  41 

some  way  or  other.  Even  in  this  age  of  more  fastid 
ious  manners,  it  is  probable  that  the  tender  inter 
changes  of  affection  between  a  young  couple  rejoining 
each  other  after  deep  calamities,  and  standing  on  the 
brink  of  fresh,  perhaps  endless  separations,  would 
meet  with  something  of  the  same  indulgence  from  the 
least  interested  witnesses. 

Hence  the  news  was  diffused  through  the  camp  with 
general  satisfaction,  that  a  noble  and  accomplished 
cavalier,  the  favored  lover  of  their  beloved  young 
mistress,  had  joined  them  from  Klosterheim  with  a 
chosen  band  of  volunteers,  upon  whose  fidelity  in  ac 
tion  they  might  entirely  depend.  Some  vague  account 
floated  about,  at  the  same  time,  of  the  marauding  at 
tack  upon  the  Lady  Paulina's  carriage.  But  naturally 
enough,  from  the  confusion  and  hurry  incident  to  a 
nocturnal  disturbance,  the  circumstances  were  mixed 
up  with  the  arrival  of  Maximilian,  in  the  way  which 
ascribed  to  him  the  merit  of  having  repelled  an  attack, 
which  might  else  have  proved  fatal  to  the  lady  of  his 
heart.  And  this  romantic  interposition  of  Providence 
on  a  young  lady's  behalf,  through  the  agency  of  her 
lover,  unexpected  on  her  part,  and  unconscious  on  his, 
proved  so  equally  gratifying  to  the  passion  for  the 
marvellous  and  the  interest  in  youthful  love,  that  no 
other  or  truer  version  of  the  case  could  ever  obtain  a 
popular  acceptance  in  the  camp,  or  afterwards  in 
Klosterheim.  And  had  it  been  the  expiess  purpose  of 


42  KLOSTERHEIM. 

Maximilian  to  found  a  belief,  for  his  own  future  bene 
fit,  of  a  providential  sanction  vouchsafed  to  his  con 
nection  with  the  Lady  Paulina,  he  could  not,  by  the 
best  arranged  contrivances,  have  more  fully  attained 
that  end. 

It  was  yet  short  of  midnight  by  more  than  an  hour  ; 
and  therefore,  on  the  suggestion  of  Maximilian,  who 
reported  the  roads  across  the  forest  perfectly  quiet,  and 
alleged  some  arguments  for  quieting  the  general  ap 
prehension  for  this  night,  the  travellers  and  troops 
retired  to  rest,  as  the  best  means  of  preparing  them  to 
face  the  trials  of  the  two  next  days.  It  was  judged 
requisite,  however,  to  strengthen  the  night-guard  very 
considerably,  and  to  relieve  it  at  least  every  two 
hours.  That  the  poor  sentinel,  on  the  forest  side  of 
the  encampment,  had  been  in  some  mysterious  way 
trepanned  upon  his  post,  was  now  too  clearly  ascer 
tained,  for  he  was  missing  ;  and  the  character  of  the 
man,  no  less  than  the  absence  of  all  intelligible  temp 
tation  to  such  an  act,  forbade  the  suspicion  of  his 
having  deserted.  On  this  quarter,  therefore,  a  file  of 
select  marksmen  was  stationed,  with  directions  in 
stantly  to  pick  off  every  moving  figure  that  showed 
itself  within  their  range.  Of  these  men,  Maximilian 
himself  took  the  command,  and  by  this  means  he  ob 
tained  the  opportunity  so  enviable  to  one  long  separ 
ated  from  his  mistress,  of  occasionally  conversing  with 
her,  and  of  watching  over  her  safety.  In  one  point  he 


KLOSTERHEIM.  43 

showed  a  distinguished  control  over  his  inclinations  ; 
for,  much  as  he  had  to  tell  her,  and  ardently  as  he 
longed  for  communicating  with  her  on  various  subjects 
of  common  interest,  he  would  not  suffer  her  to  keep 
the  window  down  for  more  than  a  minute  or  two  in  so 
dreadful  a  state  of  the  atmosphere.  She,  on  her  part, 
exacted  a  promise  from  him  that  he  would  leave  his 
station  at  three  o'clock  in  the  morning.  Meantime,  as 
on  the  one  hand  she  felt  touched  by  this  proof  of  her 
lover's  solicitude  for  her  safety,  so,  on  the  other,  she 
was  less  anxious  on  his  account,  from  the  knowledge 
she  had  of  his  long  habituation  to  the  hardships  of  a 
camp,  with  which,  indeed,  he  had  been  familiar  from 
his  childish  days.  Thus  debarred  from  conversing 
with  her  lover,  and  at  the  same  time  feeling  the  most 
absolute  confidence  in  his  protection,  she  soon  fell 
placidly  asleep.  The  foremost  subject  of  her  anxiety 
and  sorrow  was  now  removed ;  her  lover  had  been 
restored  to  her  hopes  ;  and  her  dreams  were  no  longer 
haunted  with  horrors.  Yet,  at  the  same  time,  the  tur 
bulence  of  joy  and  of  hope  fulfilled  unexpectedly,  had 
substituted  its  own  disturbances ;  and  her  sleep  was 
often  interrupted.  But,  as  often  as  that  happened,  she 
had  the  delightful  pleasure  of  seeing  her  lover's  figure, 
with  its  martial  equipments,  and  the  drooping  plumes 
of  his  yager  barrette,  as  he  took  his  station  at  her 
carriage,  traced  out  on  the  ground  in  the  bright  glare  of 
the  flambeaux.  She  awoke,  therefore,  continually  to 


44  KLOSTERHEIM. 

the  sense  of  restored  happiness  ;  and  at  length  fell 
finally  asleep,  to  wake  no  more  until  the  morning 
trumpet,  at  the  break  of  day,  proclaimed  the  approach 
ing  preparations  for  the  general  movement  of  the 
camp. 

Snow  had  fallen  in  the  night.  Towards  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  amongst  those  who  held  that  watch, 
there  had  been  a  strong  apprehension  that  it  would  fall 
heavily.  But  that  state  of  the  atmosphere  had  passed 
off;and  it  had  not  in  fact  fallen  sufficiently  to  abate 
the  cold,  or  much  to  retard  their  march.  According 
to  the  usual  custom  of  the  camp,  a  general  breakfast 
was  prepared,  at  which  all  without  distinction  messed 
together  —  a  sufficient  homage  being  expressed  to  su 
perior  rank  by  resigning  the  upper  part  of  every  table 
to  those  who  had  any  distinguished  pretensions  of  that 
kind.  On  this  occasion,  Paulina  had  the  gratification 
of  seeing  the  public  respect  offered  in  the  most  marked 
manner  to  her  lover.  He  had  retired  about  daybreak 
to  take  an  hour's  repose,  —  for  she  found,  from  her 
attendants,  with  mingled  vexation  and  pleasure,  that  he 
had  not  fulfilled  his  promise  of  retiring  at  an  earlier 
hour,  in  consequence  of  some  renewed  appearances  of 
a  suspicious  kind  in  the  woods.  In  his  absence,  she 
heard  a  resolution  proposed  and  carried  amongst  the 
whole  body  of  veteran  officers  attached  to  the  party, 
that  the  chief  military  command  should  be  transferred 
to  Maximilian,  not  merely  as  a  distinguished  favorite  of 


KLOSTERHEIM.  45 

the  Emperor,  but  also,  and  much  more,  as  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  cavalry  officers  in  the  Imperial  service. 
This  resolution  was  communicated  to  him  on  his  taking 
the  place  reserved  for  him,  at  the  head  of  the  principal 
breakfast-table  ;  and  Paulina  thought  that  he  had  never 
appeared  more  interesting  or  truly  worthy  of  admira 
tion,  than  under  that  exhibition  of  courtesy  and  modest 
dignity  with  which  he  first  earnestly  declined  the  honor 
in  favor  of  older  officers,  —  and  then  finally  complied, 
with  what  he  found  to  be  the  sincere  wish  of  the  com 
pany,  by  frankly  accepting  it.  Paulina  had  grown  up 
amongst  military  men,  and  had  been  early  trained  to  a 
sympathy  with  military  merit  —  the  very  court  of  the 
Emperor  had  something  of  the  complexion  of  a  camp 
—  and  the  object  of  her  own  youthful  choice  was  ele 
vated  in  her  eyes,  if  it  were  at  all  possible  that  he 
should  be  so,  by  this  ratification  of  his  claims  on  the 
part  of  those  whom  she  looked  up  to  as  the  most  com 
petent  judges. 

Before  nine  o'clock  the  van  of  the  party  was  in  mo 
tion  ;  then,  with  a  short  interval  came  all  the  carriages 
of  every  description,  and  the  Papenheim  dragoons  as  a 
rearguard.  About  eleven,  the  sun  began  to  burst  out, 
and  illuminated,  with  the  cheerful  crimson  of  a  frosty 
morning,  those  horizontal  draperies  of  mist  which  had 
previously  stifled  his  beams.  The  extremity  of  the 
cold  was  a  good  deal  abated  by  this  time,  and  Paulina, 
alighting  from  her  carriage,  mounted  a  led  horse, 


46  ,  KLOSTERHEIM. 

which  gave  her  the  opportunity,  so  much  wished  for 
by  them  both,  of  conversing  freely  with  Maximilian. 
For  a  long  time  the  interest  and  animation  of  their 
reciprocal  communications,  and  the  magnitude  of  the 
events  since  they  had  parted,  affecting  either  or  both  of 
them  directly,  or  in  the  persons  of  their  friends,  had 
the  natural  effect  of  banishing  any  dejection  which 
nearer  and  more  pressing  concerns  would  else  have 
called  forth.  But,  in  the  midst  of  this  factitious  anima 
tion,  and  the  happiness  which  otherwise  so  undis- 
guisedly  possessed  Maximilian  at  their  unexpected 
re-union,  it  shocked  Paulina  to  observe  in  her  lover  a 
degree  of  gravity  almost  amounting  to  sadness,  which 
argued,  in  a  soldier  of  his  gallantry,  some  overpower 
ing  sense  of  danger.  In  fact,  upon  being  pressed  to 
say  the  worst,  Maximilian  frankly  avowed,  that  he  was 
ill  at  ease  with  regard  to  their  prospects  when  the  hour 
of  trial  should  arrive  ;  and  that  hour  he  had  no  hope  of 
evading.  Holkerstein,  he  well  knew,  had  been  con 
tinually  receiving  reports  of  their  condition,  as  they 
reached  their  nightly  stations,  for  the  last  three  days. 
Spies  had  been  round  about  them,  and  even  in  the 
midst  of  them,  throughout  the  darkness  of  the  last 
night.  Spies  were  keeping  pace  with  them  as  they 
advanced.  The  certainty  of  being  attacked  was  there 
fore  pretty  nearly  absolute.  Then,  as  to  their  means 
of  defence,  and  the  relations  of  strength  between  the 
parties,  in  numbers  it  was  not  impossible  that  Holker- 


KLOSTERHEIM.  47 

stein  might  triple  themselves.  The  elite  of  their  own 
men  might  be  superior  to  most  of  his,  though  counting 
amongst  their  numbers  many  deserters  from  veteran 
regiments  ;  but  the  horses  of  their  own  party  were  in 
general  poor  and  out  of  condition,  —  and  of  the  whole 
train,  whom  Maximilian  had  inspected  at  starting,  not 
two  hundred  could  be  pronounced  fit  for  making  or 
sustaining  a  charge.  It  was  true,  that  by  mounting 
some  of  their  picked  troopers  upon  the  superior  horses 
of  the  most  distinguished  amongst  the  travellers,  who 
had  willingly  consented  to  an  arrangement  of  this  na 
ture  for  the  general  benefit,  some  partial  remedy  had 
been  applied  to  their  weakness  in  that  one  particular. 
But  there  were  others  in  which  Holkerstein  had  even 
greater  advantages  ;  more  especially,  the  equipments 
of  his  partisans  were  entirely  new,  having  been  plun 
dered  from  an  ill-guarded  armory  near  Munich,  or 
from  convoys  which  he  had  attacked.  "  Who  would 
be  a  gentleman,"  says  an  old  proverb,  "  let  him  storm 
a  town,"  and  the  gay  appearance  of  this  robber's  com 
panions  threw  a  light  upon  its  meaning.  The  ruffian 
companions  of  this  marauder  were,  besides,  animated 
by  hopes  such  as  no  regular  commander  in  an  honor 
able  service  could  find  the  means  of  holding  out.  And 
finally,  they  were  familiar  with  all  the  forest  roads  and 
innumerable  by-paths,  on  which  it  was  that  the  best 
points  lay  for  surprising  an  enemy,  or  for  a  retreat : 
whilst,  in  their  own  case,  encumbered  with  the  protcc- 


48  KLOSTERHEIM. 

tion  of  a  large  body  of  travellers  and  helpless  people, 
whom,  under  any  circumstances,  it  was  hazardous  to 
leave,  they  were  tied  up  to  the  most  slavish  dependency 
upon  the  weakness  of  their  companions  ;  and  had  it  not 
in  their  power  either  to  evade  the  most  evident  advan 
tages  on  the  side  of  the  enemy,  or  to  pursue  such  as 
they  might  be  fortunate  enough  to  create  for  them 
selves. 

"  But,  after  all,"  said  Maximilian,  assuming  a  tone 
of  gayety,  upon  finding  that  the  candor  of  his  explana 
tions  had  depressed  his  fair  companion,  "  the  saying  of 
an  old  Swedish  *  enemy  of  mine  is  worth  remembering 
in  such  cases,  —  that  nine  times  out  of  ten  a  drachm 
of  good  luck  is  worth  an  ounce  of  good  contrivance, — 
and  were  it  not,  dearest  Paulina,  that  you  are  with  us, 
I  would  think  the  risk  not  heavy.  Perhaps,  by  to-mor 
row's  sunset,  we  shall  all  look  back  from  our  pleasant 
seats  in  the  warm  refectories  of  Klosterheim,  with 
something  of  scorn  upon  our  present  apprehensions. 
—  And  see  !  at  this  very  moment  the  turn  of  the  road 
has  brought  us  in  view  of  our  port,  though  distant  from 
us,  according  to  the  windings  of  the  forest,  something 
more  than  twenty  miles.  That  range  of  hills,  which 
you  observe  ahead,  but  a  little  inclined  to  the  left, 
overhangs  Klosterheim ;  and  with  the  sun  in  a  more 
favorable  quarter,  you  might  even  at  this  point  descry 

*  It  was  the  Swedish  General  Kniphausen,  a  favorite  of  Gus- 
tavus,  to  whom  this  maxim  is  ascribed. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  49 

the  pinnacles  of  the  citadel,  or  the  loftiest  of  the  con 
vent  towers.     Half  an  hour  will  bring  us  to  the  close 

our  day's  march." 

In  reality,  a  few  minutes  sufficed  to  bring  them 
within  view  of  the  chateau,  where  their  quarters  had 
been  prepared  for  this  night.  This  was  a  great  hunt 
ing  establishment,  kept  up  at  vast  expense  by  the  two 
last  and  present  Landgraves  of  X .  Many  inter 
esting  anecdotes  were  connected  with  the  history  of 
this  building  ;  and  the  beauty  of  the  forest  scenery  was 
conspicuous  even  in  winter,  enlivened  as  the  endless 
woods  continued  to  be  by  the  scarlet  berries  of  moun 
tain-ash,  or  the  dark  verdure  of  the  holly  and  the  ilex. 
Under  her  present  frame  of  pensive  feeling,  the  quiet 
lawns  and  long-withdrawing  glades  of  these  vast  woods, 
had  a  touching  effect  upon  the  feelings  of  Paulina  ; 
their  deep  silence,  and  the  tranquillity  which  reigned 
amongst  them,  contrasting  in  her  remembrance  with 
the  hideous  scenes  of  carnage  and  desolation  through 
which  her  path  had  too  often  lain.  With  these  predis 
posing  influences  to  aid  him,  Maximilian  found  it  easy 
to  draw  off  her  attention  from  the  dangers  which 
pressed  upon  their  situation.  Her  sympathies  were  so 
quick  with  those  whom  she  loved,  that  she  readily 
adopted  their  apparent  hopes  or  their  fears  ;  and  so 
entire  was  her  confidence  in  the  superior  judgment, 
and  the  perfect  gallantry  of  her  lover,  that  her  counte- 
4 


50  KLOSTERHEIM. 

nance  reflected  immediately  the  prevailing  expression 
of  his. 

Under  these  impressions  Maximilian  suffered  her  to* 
remain.  It  seemed  cruel  to  disturb  her  with  the  truth. 
He  was  sensible  that  continued  anxiety,  and  dreadful 
or  afflicting  spectacles,  had  with  her,  as  with  most 
persons  of  her  sex  in  Germany  at  that  time,  unless 
protected  by  singular  insensibility,  somewhat  impaired 
the  firm  tone  of  her  mind.  He  was  determined,  there 
fore,  to  consult  her  comfort,  by  disguising  or  palliating 
their  true  situation.  But  for  his  own  part,  he  could 
not  hide  from  his  conviction  the  extremity  of  their 
danger  ;  nor  could  he,  when  recurring  to  the  precious 
interests  at  stake  upon  the  issue  of  that  and  the  next 
day's  trials,  face  with  any  firmness  the  afflicting  results 
to  which  they  tended,  under  the  known  barbarity  and 
ruffian  character  of  their  unprincipled  enemy. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  51 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  chateau  of  Falkenberg,  which  the  travellers 
reached  with  the  decline  of  light,  had  the  usual  de 
pendencies  of  offices  and  gardens,  which  may  be 
supposed  essential  to  a  prince's  hunting  establishment 
in  that  period.  It  stood  at  a  distance  of  eighteen  miles 
from  Klosterheim,  and  presented  the  sole  oasis  of 
culture  and  artificial  beauty  throughout  the  vast  extent 
of  those  wild  tracts  of  sylvan  ground. 

The  great  central  pile  of  the  building  was  disman 
tled  of  furniture  ;  but  the  travellers  carried  with  them, 
as  was  usual  in  the  heat  of  war,  all  the  means  of 
fencing  against  the  cold,  and  giving  even  a  luxurious 
equipment  to  their  dormitories.  In  so  large  a  party, 
the  deficiencies  of  one  were  compensated  by  the  re 
dundant  contributions  of  another.  And  so  long  as 
they  were  not  under  the  old  Roman  interdict,  excluding 
them  from  seeking  fire  and  water  of  those  on  whom 
their  day's  journey  had  thrown  them,  their  own  travel 
ling  stores  enabled  them  to  accommodate  themselves  to 
all  other  privations.  On  this  occasion,  however,  they 


52  KLOSTERHEIM. 

found  more  than  they  had  expected  ;  for  there  was  at 
Falkenberg  a  store  of  all  the  game  in  season,  con 
stantly  kept  up  for  the  use  of  the  Landgrave's  house 
hold,  and  the  more  favored  monasteries  at  Klosterheim. 
The  small  establishment  of  keepers,  foresters,  and 
other  servants,  who  occupied  the  chateau,  had  received 
no  orders  to  refuse  the  hospitality  usually  practised  in 
the  Landgrave's  name  ;  or  thought  proper  to  dissemble 
them  in  their  present  circumstances  of  inability  to 
resist.  And  having  from  necessity  permitted  so  much, 
they  were  led  by  a  sense  of  their  master's  honor,  or 
their  own  sympathy  with  the  condition  of  so  many 
women  and  children,  to  do  more.  Rations  of  game 
were  distributed  liberally  to  all  the  messes  ;  wine  was 
not  refused  by  the  old  kellermeister,  who  rightly  con 
sidered  that  some  thanks,  and  smiles  of  courteous 
acknowledgment,  might  be  a  better  payment  than  the 
hard  knocks  with  which  military  paymasters  were 
sometimes  apt  to  settle  their  accounts.  And  upon  the 
whole,  it  was  agreed  that  no  such  evening  of  comfort 
and  even  luxurious  enjoyment  had  been  spent  since 
their  departure  from  Vienna. 

One  wing  of  the  chateau  was  magnificently  furnish 
ed  ;  this,  which  of  itself  was  tolerably  extensive,  had 
been  resigned  to  the  use  of  Paulina,  Maximilian,  and 
others  of  the  military  gentlemen,  whose  manners  and 
deportment  seemed  to  entitle  them  to  superior  atten 
tions.  Here,  amongst  many  marks  of  refinement  and 


ELOSTERHBIM. 


53 


intellectual  culture,  there  was  a  library,  and  a  gallery 
of  portraits.  In  the  library,  some  of  the  officers  had 
detected  sufficient  evidences  of  the  Swedish  alliances 
clandestinely  maintained  by  the  Landgrave  ;  numbers 
of  rare  books,  bearing  the  arms  of  different  Imperial 
cities,  which,  in  the  several  campaigns  of  Gustavus, 
had  been  appropriated  as  they  fell  in  his  hands,  by  way 
of  fair  reprisals  for  the  robbery  of  the  whole  Palatine 
library  at  Heidelberg,  had  been  since  transferred 
(as  it  thus  appeared)  to  the  Landgrave,  by  purchase 
or  as  presents  ;  and  on  either  footing  argued  a  corres 
pondence  with  the  Emperor's  enemies,  which  hitherto 
he  had  strenuously  disavowed.  The  picture  gallery, 
it  was  very  probable,  had  been  collected  in  the  same 
manner.  It  contained  little  else  than  portraits,  but 
these  were  truly  admirable  and  interesting,  being  all 
recent  works  from  the  pencil  of  Vandyke,  and  com 
posing  a  series  of  heads  and  features  the  most  remark 
able  for  station  in  the  one  sex,  or  for  beauty  in  the 
other,  which  that  age  presented.  Amongst  them  were 
nearly  all  the  Imperial  leaders  of  distinction,  and  many 
of  the  Swedish.  Maximilian  and  his  brother  officers 
took  the  liveliest  pleasure  in  perambulating  this  gallery 
with  Paulina,  and  reviewing  with  her  these  fine  his 
torical  memorials.  Out  of  their  joint  recollections,  or 
the  facts  of  their  personal  experience,  they  were  able 
to  supply  any  defective  links  in  that  commentary, 
which  her  own  knowledge  of  the  Imperial  court  would 


54  KLOSTERHEIM. 

have  enabled  her  in  so  many  instances  to  furnish  upon 
this  martial  register  of  the  age. 

The  wars  of  the  Netherlands  had  transplanted  to 
Germany  that  stock  upon  which  the  camps  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War  were  originally  raised.  Accord 
ingly  a  smaller  gallery,  at  right  angles  with  the  great 
one,  presented  a  series  of  portraits  from  the  old 
Spanish  leaders  and  Walloon  partisans.  From  Eg- 
mont  and  Horn,  the  Duke  of  Alva  and  Parma,  down 
to  Spinola,  the  last  of  that  distinguished  school  of 
soldiers,  no  man  of  eminence  was  omitted.  Even  the 
worthless  and  insolent  Earl  of  Leicester,  with  his 
gallant  nephew  —  that  ultimus  Romanorum  in  the  rolls 
of  chivalry  —  were  not  excluded,  though  it  was  pretty 
evident  that  a  Catholic  zeal  had  presided  in  forming 
the  collection.  For,  together  with  the  Prince  of 
Orange  and  Henri  Quatre,  were  to  be  seen  their 
vile  assassins  —  portrayed  with  a  lavish  ostentation  of 
ornament,  and  enshrined  in  a  frame  so  gorgeous,  as 
raised  them  in  some  degree  to  the  rank  of  consecrated 
martyrs. 

From  these  past  generations  of  eminent  persons, 
who  retained  only  a  traditional  or  legendary  importance 
in  the  eyes  of  most  who  were  now  reviewing  them,  all 
turned  back  with  delight  to  the  active  spirits  of  their 
own  day,  many  of  them  yet  living,  and  as  warm  with 
life  and  heroic  aspirations  as  their  inimitable  portraits 
had  represented  them.  Here  was  Tilly,  the  "  little 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  55 

corporal,"  now  recently  stretched  in  a  soldier's  grave, 
with  his  wily  and  inflexible  features.     Over  against 
him  was  his  great  enemy,  who  had   first  taught  him 
the  hard  lesson  of  retreating,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  with 
his  colossal  bust,  and  "  atlantean  shoulders,  fit  to  bear 
the  weight  of  mightiest  monarchies."     He  also  had 
perished,  and  too   probably   by  the   double   crime   of 
assassination  and  private  treason  ;  but  the  public  glory 
of  his  short  career  was  proclaimed  in  the  ungenerous 
exultations  of  Catholic  Rome  from  Vienna  to  Madrid, 
and   the    individual    heroism    in   the   lamentations    of 
soldiers    under    every   banner  which    now   floated    in 
Europe.     Beyond  him  ran  the  long  line  of  Imperial 
generals  —  from    Wallenstein,   the    magnificent    and 
the   imaginative,  with  Hamlet's  infirmity   of  purpose, 
De   Mercy,  &c.,  down  to  the  heroes  of  partisan  war 
fare,  Hoik,  the  Butlers,  and  the  noble  Papenheim,  or 
nobler    Piccolomini.       Below    them    were     ranged  — 
Gustavus  Horn,  Banier,  the  Prince   of  Saxe-Weimar, 
the  Rhinegrave,  and  many  other  Protestant  command 
ers,  whose   names  and   military  merits  were   familiar 
to  Paulina,  though  she  now  beheld  their  features  for 
the  first  time.     Maximilian  was  here  the  best  interpre 
ter  that  she  could  possibly  have  met  with.     For  he 
had  not  only  seen  the  greater  part  of  them  on  the  field 
of  battle,  but  as  a  favorite  and  confidential   officer  of 
the    Emperor's,   had   personally    been    concerned    in 


56  KLOSTERHEIM. 

diplomatic   transactions   with    the    most   distinguished 
amongst  them. 

Midnight  insensibly  surprised  them  whilst  pursuing 
the  many  interesting  historical  remembrances  which 
the  portraits  called  up.  Most  of  the  company  upon 
this  warning  of  the  advanced  hour  began  to  drop  off; 
some  to  rest,  and  some  upon  the  summons  of  the 
military  duty  which  awaited  them  in  their  turn.  In 
this  way,  Maximilian  and  Paulina  were  gradually  left 
alone,  and  now  at  length  found  a  time  which  had  not 
before  offered  for  communicating  freely  all  that  pressed 
upon  their  hearts.  Maximilian,  on  his  part,  going  back 
to  the  period  of  their  last  sudden  separation,  explained 
his  own  sudden  disappearance  from  Vienna.  At  a 
moment's  warning  he  had  been  sent  off  with  sealed 
orders  from  the  Emperor,  to  be  first  opened  in  Klos- 
terheim  :  the  mission  upon  which  he  had  been  des 
patched  was  of  consequence  to  the  Imperial  interests, 
and  through  his  majesty's  favor  would  eventually 
prove  so  to  his  own.  Thus  it  was  that  he  had  been 
peremptorily  cut  off  from  all  opportunity  of  communi 
cating  to  herself  the  purpose  and  direction  of  his 
journey  previously  to  his  departure  from  Vienna  ;  and 
if  his  majesty  had  not  taken  that  care  upon  himself, 
but  had  contented  himself  in  the  most  general  terms 
with  assuring  Paulina  that  Maximilian  was  absent  on  a 
private  mission,  doubtless  his  intention  had  been  the 
kind  one  of  procuring  her  a  more  signal  surprise  of 


KLOSTERHEIM.  57 

pleasure  upon  his  own  sudden  return.  Unfortunately, 
however,  that  return  had  become  impossible  :  things 
had  latterly  taken  a  turn,  which  embarrassed  himself, 
and  continued  to  require  his  presence.  These  per 
plexities  had  been  for  some  time  known  to  the  Em 
peror  ;  and  upon  reflection,  he  doubted  not,  that  her 
own  journey,  undertaken  before  his  Majesty  could  be 
aware  of  the  dangers  which  would  beset  its  latter  end, 
must  in  some  way  be  connected  with  the  remedy  which 
the  Emperor  designed  for  this  difficult  affair.  But 
doubtless  she  herself  was  the  bearer  of  sufficient  ex 
planations  from  the  Imperial  ministers  on  that  head. 
Finally,  whilst  assuring  her  that  his  own  letters  to 
herself  had  been  as  frequent  as  in  any  former  absence, 
Maximilian  confessed  that  he  did  not  feel  greatly 
astonished  at  the  fact  of  none  at  all  having  reached 
her,  when  he  recollected  that  to  the  usual  adverse 
accidents  of  war,  daily  intercepting  all  messengers 
not  powerfully  escorted,  were  to  be  added,  in  this 
case,  the  express  efforts  of  private  malignity  in  com 
mand  of  all  the  forest  passes. 

This  explanation  recalled  Paulina  to  a  very  painful 
sense  of  the  critical  importance  which  might  be  at 
tached  to  the  papers  which  she  had  lost.  As  yet,  she 
had  found  no  special  opportunity,  or,  believing  it  of 
less  importance,  had  neglected  it,  for  communicating 
more  than  the  general  fact  of  a  robbery.  She  now 
related  the  case  more  circumstantially  ;  and  both  were 


58  KLOSTERHEIM. 

struck  with  it,  as  at  this  moment  a  very  heavy  misfor 
tune.  Not  only  might  her  own  perilous  journey,  and 
the  whole  purposes  of  the  Emperor  embarked  upon  it, 
be  thus  rendered  abortive  ;  but  their  common  enemies 
would  by  this  time  be  possessed  of  the  whole  informa 
tion  which  had  been  so  critically  lost  to  their  own 
party,  and  perhaps  would  have  it  in  their  power  to 
make  use  of  themselves  as  instruments  for  defeating 
their  own  most  important  hopes. 

Maximilian  sighed  as  he  reflected  on  the  probability 
that  a  far  shorter  and  bloodier  event  might  defeat  every 
earthly  hope  within  the  next  twenty-four  hours.  But 
he  dissembled  his  feelings  ;  recovered  even  a  tone  of 
gayety  ;  and,  begging  of  Paulina  to  dismiss  this  vexa 
tious  incident  from  her  thoughts,  as  a  matter  that  after 
all  would  probably  be  remedied  by  their  first  commu 
nication  with  the  Emperor,  and  before  any  evil  had 
resulted  from  it,  he  accompanied  her  to  the  entrance  of 
her  own  suite  of  chambers,  and  then  returned  to  seek 
a  few  hours'  repose  for  himself  on  one  of  the  sofas  he 
had  observed  in  one  of  the  small  ante-rooms  attached 
to  the  library. 

The  particular  room  which  he  selected  for  his  pur 
pose,  on  account  of  its  small  size,  and  its  warm 
appearance  in  other  respects,  was  furnished  under 
foot  with  layers  of  heavy  Turkey  carpets,  one  laid 
upon  another  (according  to  a  fashion  then  prevalent  in 
Germany),  and  on  the  walls  with  tapestry.  In  this 


KLOSTERHEIM.  59 

mode  of  hanging  rooms,  though  sometimes  heavy  and 
sombre,  there  was  a  warmth  sensible  and  apparent  as 
well  as  real,  which  peculiarly  fitted  it  for  winter  apart 
ments,  and  a  massy  splendor  which  accorded  with 
the  style  of  dress  and  furniture  in  that  gorgeous  age. 
One  real  disadvantage,  however,  it  had  as  often  em 
ployed  ;  it  gave  a  ready  concealment  to  intruders  with 
evil  intentions  ;  and  under  the  protecting  screen  of 
tapestry  many  a  secret  had  been  discovered  ;  many 
robberies  facilitated  ;  and  some  celebrated  murderers 
had  been  sheltered,  with  circumstances  of  mystery  that 
forever  baffled  investigation. 

Maximilian  smiled  as  the  sight  of  the  hangings,  with 
their  rich  colors  glowing  in  the  fire-light,  brought  back 
to  his  remembrance  one  of  those  tales  which  in  the 
preceding  winter  had  made  a  great  noise  in  Vienna. 
With  a  soldier's  carelessness,  he  thought  lightly  of  all 
dangers  that  could  arise  within  four  walls ;  and  having 
extinguished  the  lights  which  burned  upon  a  table,  and 
unbuckled  his  sabre,  he  threw  himself  upon  a  sofa  which 
he  drew  near  to  the  fire  ;  and  then  enveloping  himself 
in  a  large  horseman's  cloak,  he  courted  the  approach 
of  sleep.  The  fatigues  of  the  day,  and  of  the  preced 
ing  night,  had  made  this  in  some  measure  needful  to 
him.  But  weariness  is  not  always  the  best  preface  to 
repose  ;  and  the  irritation  of  many  busy  anxieties  con 
tinued  for  some  time  to  keep  him  in  a  most  uneasy 
state  of  vigilance.  As  he  lay,  he  could  see  on  one 


60  KLOSTERIIEm. 

side  the  fantastic  figures  in  the  fire  composed  of  wood 
and  turf;  on  the  other  side,  looking  to  the  tapestry,  he 
saw  the  wild  forms  and  the  melee,  little  less  fantastic, 
of  human  and  brute  features  in  a  chase  — a  boar  chase 
in  front,  and  a  stag  chase  on  his  left  hand.  These,  as 
they  rose  fitfully  in  bright  masses  of  color  and  of 
savage  expression  under  the  lambent  flashing  of  the 
fire,  continued  to  excite  his  irritable  state  of  feeling ; 
and  it  was  not  for  some  time  that  he  felt  this  uneasy 
condition  give  way  to  exhaustion.  He  was  at  length 
on  the  very  point  of  falling  asleep,  or  perhaps  had 
already  fallen  into  its  very  lightest  and  earliest  stage, 
when  the  echo  of  a  distant  door  awoke  him.  He  had 
some  slight  impression  that  a  noise  in  his  own  room 
had  concurred  with  the  other  and  more  distant  one  to 
awake  him.  But,  after  raising  himself  for  a  moment 
on  his  elbow  and  listening,  he  again  resigned  himself 
to  sleep. 

Again,  however,  and  probably  before  he  had  slept  a 
minute,  he  was  roused  by  a  double  disturbance.  A 
low  rustling  was  heard  in  some  part  of  the  room,  and  a 
heavy  foot  upon  a  neighboring  staircase.  Roused  at 
length  to  the  prudence  of  paying  some  attention  to 
sounds  so  stealthy,  in  a  situation  beset  with  dangers, 
he  rose  and  threw  open  the  door.  A  corridor,  which 
ran  round  the  head  of  the  staircase,  was  lit  up  with  a 
brilliant  light;  and  he  could  command  from  this  sta 
tion  one  flight  of  the  stairs.  On  these  he  saw  nothing ; 


KLOSTERHEIM.  61 

all  was  now  wrapt  in  a  soft  effulgence  of  light,  and  in 
absolute  silence.  No  sound  recurring  after  a  minute's 
attention,  and  indisposed  by  weariness  to  any  stricter 
examination,  where  all  examination  from  one  so  little 
acquainted  with  the  localities  might  prove  unavailing, 
he  returned  to  his  own  room  ;  but  before  again  lying 
down,  he  judged  it  prudent  to  probe  the  concealments 
of  the  tapestry  by  carrying  his  sabre  round,  and  every 
where  pressing  the  hangings  to  the  wall.  In  this  trial 
he  met  with  no  resistance  at  any  point ;  and  willingly 
believing  that  he  had  been  deceived,  or  that  his  ear 
had  exaggerated  some  trivial  sound,  in  a  state  of  im 
perfect  slumber,  he  again  laid  down  and  addressed 
himself  to  sleep.  Still  there  were  remembrances 
which  occurred  at  this  moment  to  disturb  him.  The 
readiness  with  which  they  had  been  received  at  the 
chateau  was  in  itself  suspicious.  He  remembered  the 
obstinate  haunting  of  their  camp  on  the  preceding 
night,  and  the  robbery  conducted  with  so  much  knowl 
edge  of  circumstances.  Jonas  Melk,  the  brutal  land 
lord  of  Waldenhausen,  a  man  known  to  him  by  repute 
(though  not  personally),  as  one  of  the  vilest  agents 
employed  by  the  Landgrave,  had  been  actively  en 
gaged  in  his  master's  service  at  their  preceding  stage. 
He  was  probably  one  of  those  who  haunted  the  wood 
through  the  night.  And  he  had  been  repeatedly  in 
formed  through  the  course  of  the  day,  that  this  man  in 
particular,  whose  features  were  noticed  by  the  yagers, 


62  KLOSTERHEIM. 

on  occasion  of  their  officer's  reproach  to  him,  had  been 
seen  at  intervals  in  company  with  ethers,  keeping  a 
road  parallel  to  their  own,  and  steadily  watching  their 
order  of  advance. 

These  recollections,  now  laid  together,  impressed 
him  with  some,  uneasiness.  But  overpowering  weari 
ness  gave  him  a  strong  interest  in  dismissing  them. 
And  a  soldier,  with  the  images  of  fifty  combats  fresh 
in  his  mind,  does  not  willingly  admit  the  idea  of  danger 
from  a  single  arm,  and  in  a  situation  of  household 
security.  Pshaw  !  he  exclaimed,  with  some  disdain, 
as  these  martial  remembrances  rose  up  before  him, 
especially  as  the  silence  had  now  continued  undis 
turbed  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour.  In  five  minutes  more 
he  had  fallen  profoundly  asleep  ;  and  in  less  than  one 
half  hour,  as  he  afterwards  judged,  he  was  suddenly 
awakened  by  a  dagger  at  his  throat. 

At  one  bound  he  sprung  upon  his  feet.  The  cloak, 
in  which  he  had  been  enveloped,  caught  upon  some  of 
the  buckles  or  ornamented  work  of  his  appointments, 
and  for  a  moment  embarrassed  his  motions.  There 
was  no  light,  except  what  came  from  the  sullen  and 
intermitting  gleams  of  the  fire.  But  even  this  was 
sufficient  to  show  him  the  dusky  outline  of  two  figures. 
With  the  foremost  he  grappled,  and,  raising  him  in 
his  arms,  threw  him  powerfully  upon  the  floor,  with  a 
force  that  left  him  stunned  and  helpless.  The  other 
had  endeavored  to  pinion  his  arms  from  behind ;  for 


KLOSTERHE1M.  63 

the  body  armor,  which  Maximilian  had  not  laid  aside 
for  the  night,  under  the  many  anticipations  of  service 
which  their  situation  suggested,  proved  a  sufficient 
protection  against  the  blows  of  the  assassin's  poinard. 
Impatient  of  the  darkness  and  uncertainty,  Maximilian 
rushed  to  the  door  and  flung  it  violently  open.  The 
assassin  still  clung  to  his  arms,  conscious  that  if  he 
once  forfeited  his  hold  until  he  had  secured  a  retreat, 
he  should  be  taken  at  disadvantage.  But  Maximilian 
now  drawing  a  pctronel  which  hung  at  his  belt,  cocked 
it  as  rapidly  as  his  embarrassed  motions  allowed  him. 
The  assassin  faltered,  conscious  that  a  moment's  re 
laxation  of  grasp  would  enable  his  antagonist  to  turn 
the  muzzle  over  his  shoulder.  Maximilian,  on  the 
other  hand,  now  perfectly  awake,  and  with  the  benefit 
of  that  self-possession  which  the  other  so  entirely 
wanted,  felt  the  nervous  tremor  in  the  villain's  hands  ; 
and  profiting  by  this  moment  of  indecision,  made  a 
desperate  effort,  released  one  arm,  which  he  used 
with  so  much  effect  as  immediately  to  liberate  the 
other,  and  then  intercepting  the  passage  to  the  stairs, 
wheeled  round  upon  his  murderous  enemy,  and  pre 
senting  the  pretronel  to  his  breast,  bade  him  surrender 
his  arms  if  he  hoped  for  quarter. 

The  man  was  an  athletic,  and,  obviously,  a  most 
powerful  ruffian.  On  his  face  he  carried  more  than 
one  large,  glazed  cicatrix,  that  assisted  the  savage 
expression  of  malignity  impressed  by  nature  upon  his 


64  KLOSTERHEIM. 

features.  And  his  matted  black  hair,  with  its  elf 
locks,  completed  the  picturesque  effect  of  a  face  that 
proclaimed,  in  every  lineament,  a  reckless  abandon 
ment  to  cruelty  and  ferocious  passions.  Maximilian 
himself,  familiar  as  he  was  with  the  faces  of  military 
butchers  in  the  dreadful  hours  of  sack  and  carnage, 
recoiled  for  one  instant  from  this  hideous  ruffian,  who 
had  not  even  the  palliations  of  youth  in  his  favor,  for 
he  seemed  fifty  at  the  least.  All  this  had  passed  in 
an  instant  of  time,  and  now,  as  he  recovered  himself 
from  his  momentary  shock  at  so  hateful  an  expression 
of  evil  passions,  great  was  Maximilian's  astonishment 
to  perceive  his  antagonist  apparently  speechless,  and 
struggling  with  some  over-mastering  sense  of  horror, 
that  convulsed  his  features,  and  for  a  moment  glazed 
his  eye. 

Maximilian  looked  around  for  the  object  of  his 
alarm,  but  in  vain.  In  reality  it  was  himself,  in  con 
nection  with  some  too  dreadful  remembrances,  now 
suddenly  awakened,  that  had  thus  overpowered  the 
man's  nerves.  The  brilliant  light  of  a  large  chande 
lier,  which  overhung  the  staircase,  fell  strongly  upon 
Maximilian's  features,  and  the  excitement  of  the  mo 
ment  gave  to  them  the  benefit  of  their  fullest  expres 
sion.  Prostrate  on  the  ground,  and  abandoning  his 
dagger  without  an  effort  at  retaining  it,  the  man  gazed, 
as  if  under  a  rattlesnake's  fascination,  at  the  young 
soldier  before  him.  Suddenly  he  recovered  his  voice  ; 


KLOSFERHEIM.  65 

and,  with  a  piercing  cry  of  unaffected  terror,  exclaimed, 
"  Save  me,  save  me,  blessed  Virgin  !  —  Prince,  noble 
prince,  forgive  me  !  —  Will  the  grave  not  hold  its 
own  ?  — Jesu  Maria!  who  could  have  believed  it  ?  " 

"  Listen,  fellow  !  "  interrupted  Maximilian  ;  "  what 
prince  is  it  you  speak  of?  — For  whom  do  you  take 
me  ?  Speak  truly,  and  abuse  not  my  forbearance." 

"  Ha  !  and  his  own  voice,  too !  —  and  here  on  this 
spot !  —  God  is  just !  —  Yet  do  thou,  good  patron,  holy 
St.  Ennengarde,  deliver  me  from  the  avenger  !  " 

"  Man,  you  rave  !  —  Stand  up,  recover  yourself, 
and  answer  me  to  what  I  shall  ask  thee  ;  speak  truly, 
and  thou  shalt  have  thy  life.  Whose  gold  was  it  that 
armed  thy  hand  against  one  who  had  injured  neither 
thee  nor  thine  ?  " 

But  he  spoke  to  one  who  could  no  longer  hear. 
The  man  grovelled  on  the  ground,  and  hid  his  face 
from  a  being  whom,  in  some  incomprehensible  way, 
he  regarded  as  an  apparition  from  the  other  world. 

Multitudes  of  persons  had  by  this  time  streamed  in, 
summoned  by  the  noise  of  the  struggle  from  all  parts 
of  the  chateau.  Some  fancied  that,  in  the  frenzied 
assassin  on  the  ground,  whose  panic  too  manifestly 
attested  itself  as  genuine,  they  recognized  one  of  those 
who  had  so  obstinately  dogged  them  by  side-paths  in 
the  forest.  Whoever  he  were,  and  upon  whatever 
mission  employed,  he  was  past  all  rational  examina 
tion  ;  at  the  aspect  of  Maximilian,  he  relapsed  into 
5 


66  KLOSTERHEIM. 

convulsive  horrors,  which  soon  became  too  fit  for 
medical  treatment  to  allow  of  any  useful  judicial  in 
quiry,  and  for  the  present  he  was  consigned  to  the 
safe  keeping  of  the  Provost  Marshal. 

His  companion,  meantime,  had  profited  by  his 
opportunity  and  the  general  confusion,  to.  effect  his 
escape.  Nor  was  this  difficult.  Perhaps,  in  the  con 
sternation  of  the  first  moment,  and  the  exclusive  atten 
tion  that  settled  upon  the  party  in  the  corridor,  he 
might  even  have  mixed  in  the  crowd.  But  this  was 
not  necessary  ;  for,  on  raising  the  tapestry,  a  door 
was  discovered  which  opened  into  a  private  passage, 
having  a  general  communication  with  the  rest  of  the 
rooms  on  that  floor.  Steps  were  now  taken,  by  sen 
tries  disposed  through  the  interior  of  the  mansion  at 
proper  points,  to  secure  themselves  from  the  enemies 
who  lurked  within,  whom  hitherto  they  had  too  much 
neglected  for  the  avowed  and  more  military  assailants 
who  menaced  them  from  without.  Security  was  thus 
restored.  But  a  deep  impression  accompanied  the 
party  to  their  couches,  of  the  profound  political  mo 
tives,  or  (in  the  absence  of  those)  of  the  rancorous 
personal  malignity,  which  could  prompt  such  obstinate 
persecution  ;  by  modes,  also,  and  by  hands,  which 
encountered  so  many  chances  of  failing ;  and  which, 
even  in  the  event  of  the  very  completest  success  for 
the  present,  could  not  be  expected,  under  the  eyes  of 
so  many  witnesses,  to  escape  a  final  exposure.  Some 


KLOSTERHEIM.  67 

enemy,  of  unusual  ferocity,  was  too  obviously  work 
ing  in  the  dark,  and  by  agencies  as  mysterious  as  his 
own  purpose. 

Meantime,  in  the  city  of  Klosterheim  the  general 
interest  in  the  fortunes  of  the  approaching  travellers 
had  suffered  no  abatement,  and  some  circumstances 
had  occurred  to  increase  the  popular  irritation.  It  was 
known  that  Maximilian  had  escaped  with  a  strong 
party  of  friends  from  the  city ;  but  how,  or  by  whose 
connivance,  could  in  no  way  be  discovered.  This  had 
drawn  upon  all  persons  who  were  known  as  active  par 
tisans  against  the  Landgrave,  or  liable  to  suspicion  as 
friends  of  Maximilian,  a  vexatious  persecution  from  the 
military  police  of  the  town.  Some  had  been  arrested  ; 
many  called  upon  to  give  security  for  their  future  be 
havior  ;  and  all  had  been  threatened  or  treated  with 
harshness.  Hence,  as  well  as  from  previous  irritation 
and  alarm  on  account  of  the  party  from  Vienna,  the 
whole  town  was  in  a  state  of  extreme  agitation. 

Klosterheim  in  the  main  features  of  its  political 
distractions,  reflected,  almost  as  in  a  representative 
picture,  the  condition  of  many  another  German  city. 
At  that  period,  by  very  ancient  ties  of  reciprocal  ser 
vice,  strengthened  by  treaties,  by  religious  faith,  and 
by  personal  attachment  to  individuals  of  the  Imperial 
house,  this  ancient  and  sequestered  city  was  inaliena 
bly  bound  to  the  interests  of  the  Emperor.  Both  the 
city  and  the  university  were  Catholic.  Princes  of  the 


68  KLOSTERHEIIVI 

Imperial  family,  and  Papal  commisioners,  who  had  se 
cret  motives  for  not  appearing  at  Vienna,  had  more 
than  once  found  a  hospitable  reception  within  the 
walls.  And,  amongst  many  acts  of  grace  by  which 
the  Emperors  had  acknowledged  these  services  and 
marks  of  attachment,  one  of  them  had  advanced  a  very 
large  sum  of  money  to  the  city  chest  for  an  indefinite 
time ;  receiving  in  return,  as  the  warmest  testimony  of 
confidential  gratitude  which  the  city  could  bestow, 
that  jus  Hberi  ingressus  which  entitled  the  Emperor's 
armies  to  a  free  passage  at  all  times,  and,  in  cases  of 
extremity,  to  the  right  of  keeping  the  city  gates  and 
maintaining  a  garrison  in  the  citadel.  Unfortunately, 
Klosterheim  was  not  sui  juris,  or  on  the  roll  of  free 
cities  of  the  Empire,  but  of  the  nature  of  an  appan 
age  in  the  family  of  the  Landgrave  of  X ;  and 

this  circumstance  had  produced  a  double  perplexity 
in  the  politics  of  the  city  ;  —  for  the  late  Landgrave, 
who  had  been  assassinated  in  a  very  mysterious  man 
ner  upon  a  hunting  party,  benefited  to  the  fullest  extent 
both  by  the  political  and  religious  bias  of  the  city  — 
being  a  personal  friend  of  the  Emperor's,  a  Catholic, 
amiable  in  his  deportment,  and  generally  beloved  by 
his  subjects.  But  the  Prince  who  had  succeeded  him 
in  the  Landgraviate  as  the  next  heir,  was  everywhere 
odious  for  the  harshness  of  his  government,  no  less  than 
for  the  gloomy  austerity  of  his  character ;  and  to 
Klosterheim,  in  particular,  which  had  been  pronounced 


KLOSTERHEIM.  69 

by  some  of  the  first  jurisprudents  a  female  appanage, 
he  presented  himself  under  the  additional  disadvan. 
tages  of  a  very  suspicious  title  and  a  Swedish  bias,  too 
notorious  to  be  disguised.  At  a  time  when  the  religious 
and  political  attachments  of  Europe  were  brought 
into  collisions  so  strange,  that  the  foremost  auxiliary 
of  the  Protestant  interest  in  Germany  was  really  the 
most  distinguished  Cardinal  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  it 
did  not  appear  inconsistent  with  this  strong  leaning  to 
the  King  of  Sweden,  that  the  Landgrave  was  privately 
known  to  be  a  Catholic  bigot,  who  practised  the  se 
verest  penances,  and  tyrant  as  he  showed  himself  to  all 
others,  grovelled  himself  as  an  abject  devotee  at  the 
feet  of  a  haughty  confessor.  Amongst  the  populace 
of  Klosterheim,  this  feature  of  his  character,  confront 
ed  with  the  daily  proofs  of  his  entire  vassalage  to  the 
Swedish  interest,  passed  for  the  purest  hypocrisy  ;  and 
he  had  credit  for  no  religion  at  all  with  the  world  at 
large.  But  the  fact  was  otherwise.  Conscious  from 
the  first  that  he  held  even  the  Landgraviate  by  a  slender 
title  (for  he  was  no  more  than  cousin  once  removed 
to  his  immediate  predecessor),  and  that  his  pretensions 
upon  Klosterheim  had  separate  and  peculiar  defects, 
sinking  of  course  with  the  failure  of  his  claim  as  Land 
grave,  but  not  therefore  prospering  with  its  success,  — 
he  was  aware  that  none  but  the  most  powerful  arm 
could  keep  his  princely  cap  upon  his  head.  The  com 
petitors  for  any  part  of  his  possessions,  one  and  all, 


70  KLOSTERHEIM. 

had  thrown  themselves  upon  the  Emperor's  protection. 
This,  if  no  other  reason,  would  have  thrown  him  into 
the  arms  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  ;  and  with  this,  as  it 
happened,  other  reasons  of  local  importance  had  then 
and  since  co-operated.  Time,  as  it  advanced,  brought 
increase  of  weight  to  all  these  motives.  Rumors  of  a 
dark  and  ominous  tendency,  arising  no  one  knew 
whence,  nor  by  whom  encouraged,  pointed  injuriously 
to  the  past  history  of  the  Landgrave,  and  to  some 
dreadful  exposures  which  were  hanging  over  his  head. 
A  lady,  at  present  in  obscurity,  was  alluded  to  as  the 
agent  of  redress  to  others,  through  her  own  heavy 
wrongs  ;  and  these  rumors  were  the  more  acceptable 
to  the  people  of  Klosterheim,  because  they  connected 
the  impending  punishment  of  the  hated  Landgrave 
with  the  restoration  of  the  Imperial  connection  ;  for  it 
was  still  insinuated,  under  every  version  of  these 
mysterious  reports,  that  the  Emperor  was  the  ultimate 
supporter  in  the  last  resort,  of  the  lurking  claims  now 
on  the  point  of  coming  forward  to  challenge  public 
attention.  Under  these  alarming  notices,  and  fully 
aware  that  sooner  or  later  he  must  be  thrown  into  col 
lision  with  the  Imperial  court,  the  Landgrave  had  now 
for  some  time  made  up  his  mind  to  found  a  merit  with 
the  Swedish  chancellor  and  general  officers,  by  pre 
cipitating  an  uncompromising  rupture  with  his  Catholic 
enemies,  and  thus  to  extract  the  grace  of  a  voluntary 


KLOSTERHEIM.  71 

act,  from  what,  in  fact,  he  knew  to  be  sooner  or  later 
inevitable. 

Such  was  the  positive  and  relative  aspect  of  the 
several  interests  which  were  now  struggling  in  Klos- 
terheim.  Desperate  measures  were  contemplated  by 
both  parties  ;  and,  as  opportunities  should  arise,  and 
proper  means  should  develope  themselves,  more  than 
one  party  might  be  said  to  stand  on  the  brink  of  great 
explosions.  Conspiracies  were  moving  in  darkness, 
both  in  the  council  of  the  burghers  and  of  the  univer 
sity.  Imperfect  notices  of  their  schemes,  and  some 
times  delusive  or  misleading  notices,  had  reached  the 
Landgrave.  The  city,  the  university,  and  the  numer 
ous  convents,  were  crowded  to  excess  with  refugees. 
Malecontents  of  ever^r  denomination  and  every  shade, 
—  emissaries  of  all  the  factions  which  then  agitated 
Germany,  —  reformado  soldiers,  laid  aside  by  their 
original  employers,  under  new  arrangements,  or  from 
private  jealousies  of  new  commanders,  —  great  persons 
with  special  reasons  for  courting  a  temporary  seclu 
sion,  and  preserving  a  strict  incognito, —  misers,  who 
fled  with  their  hoards  of  gold  and  jewels  to  this 
city  of  refuge,  —  desolate  ladies,  from  the  surrounding 
provinces,  in  search  of  protection  for  themselves,  or 
for  the  honor  of  their  daughters  ;  and  (not  least  dis 
tinguished  among  the  many  classes  of  fugitives) 
prophets  and  enthusiasts  of  every  description,  whom 
the  magnitude  of  the  political  events,  and  their  re- 


72  KLOSTERHEIM. 

religious  origin,  so  naturally  called  forth  in  swarms ; 
—  these,  and  many  more,  in  connection  with  their 
attendants,  troops,  students,  and  the  terrified  peas 
antry,  from  a  circle  of  forty  miles  radius  around  the 
city  as  a  centre,  had  swelled  the  city  of  Klosterheim, 
from  a  total  of  about  seventeen,  to  six  or  seven-and- 
thirty  thousand.  War,  with  a  slight  reserve  for  the 
late  robberies  of  Holkerstein,  had  as  yet  spared  this 
favored  nook  of  Germany.  The  great  storm  had 
whistled  and  raved  around  them  ;  but  hitherto  none 
had  penetrated  the  sylvan  sanctuary,  which  on  every 
side  invested  this  privileged  city.  The  ground  seemed 
charmed  by  some  secret  spells,  and  consecrated  from 
intrusion.  For  the  great  tempest  had  often  swept 
directly  upon  them,  and  yet  still  had  wheeled  off,  sum 
moned  away  by  some  momentary  call,  to  some  remoter 
attraction.  But  now  at  length  all  things  portended, 
that,  if  the  war  should  revive  in  strength  after  this 
brief  suspension,  it  would  fall  with  accumulated  weight 
upon  this  yet  unravaged  district. 

This  was  the  anticipation  which  had  governed  the 
Landgrave's  policy  in  so  sternly  and  barbarously 
interfering  with  the  generous  purposes  of  the  Klos- 
terheimers,  for  carrying  over  a  safe-conduct  to  their 
friends  and  visitors,  when  standing  on  the  margin  of 
the  forest.  The  robber  Holkerstein,  if  not  expressly 
countenanced  by  the  Swedes,  and  secretly  nursed  up 
to  his  present  strength  by  Richelieu,  was  at  any  rate 


KLOSTERHE1M.  73 

embarked  upon  a  system  of  aggression  which  would 
probably  terminate  in  connecting  him  with  one  or 
other  of  those  authentic  powers.  In  any  case,  he 
stood  committed  to  a  course  of  continued  offence  upon 
the  Imperial  interests  ;  since  in  that  quarter  his  injuries 
and  insults  were  already  past  forgiveness.  The  inter 
est  of  Holkerstein,  then,  ran  in  the  same  channel  with 
that  of  the  Landgrave.  It  was  impolitic  to  weaken  him. 
It  was  doubly  impolitic  to  weaken  him  by  a  measure 
which  must  also  weaken  the  Landgrave  ;  for  any  deduc 
tion  from  his  own  military  force,  or  from  the  means  of 
recruiting  it,  was  in  that  proportion  a  voluntary  sacri 
fice  of  the  weight  he  should  obtain  with  the  Swedes  on 
making  the  junction,  which  he  now  firmly  counted  on, 
with  their  forces.  But  a  result  which  he  still  more 
dreaded  from  the  co-operation  of  the  Klosterheimers 
with  the  caravan  from  Vienna,  was  the  probable  over 
throw  of  that  supremacy  in  the  city,  which  even  now 
was  so  nicely  balanced  in  his  favor,  that  a  slight  rein 
forcement  to  the  other  side  would  turn  the  scale  against 
him. 

In  all  these  calculations  of  policy,  and  the  cruel 
measures  by  which  he  supported  them,  he  was  guided 
by  the  counsels  of  Luigi  Adorni  —  a  subtle  Italian, 
whom  he  had  elevated  from  the  post  of  a  private 
secretary  to  that  of  sole  minister  for  the  conduct  of 
state  affairs.  This  man,  who  covered  a  temperament 
of  terrific  violence  with  a  masque  of  Venetian  dissimu- 


74  KLOSTERHEIM. 

lation  and  the  most  icy  reserve,  met  with  no  opposition, 
unless  it  were  occasionally  from  Father  Ansel m,  the 
confessor.  He  delighted  in  the  refinements  of  intrigue, 
and  in  the  most  tortuous  labyrinths  of  political  ma 
noeuvring,  purely  for  their  own  sakes  ;  and  sometimes 
defeated  his  own  purposes  by  mere  superfluity  of  diplo 
matic  subtlety  ;  which  hardly,  however,  won  a  momen 
tary  concern  from  him  in  the  pleasure  he  experienced  at 
having  found  an  undeniable  occasion  for  equal  subtlety 
in  unweaving  his  own  webs  of  deception.  He  had 
been  confounded  by  the  evasion  of  Maximilian  and  his 
friends  from  the  orders  of  the  Landgrave  ;  and  the 
whole  energy  of  his  nature  was  bent  to  the  discovery 
of  the  secret  avenues  which  had  opened  the  means  to 
this  elopement. 

There  were,  in  those  days,  as  is  well  known  to  Ger 
man  antiquaries,  few  castles  or  fortresses  of  much 
importance  in  Germany,  which  did  not  communicate 
by  subterraneous  passages  with  the  exterior  country. 
In  many  instances  these  passages  were  of  surprising 
extent,  first  emerging  to  the  light  in  some  secluded  spot 
among  rocks  or  woods,  at  the  distance  of  two,  three, 
or  even  four  miles.  There  were  cases,  even,  in  which 
they  were  carried  below  the  beds  of  rivers  as  broad 
and  deep  as  the  Rhine,  the  Elbe,  or  the  Danube. 
Sometimes  there  were  several  of  such  communications 
on  different  faces  of  the  fortress  ;  and  sometimes  each 
of  these  branched,  at  some  distance  from  the  building, 


KLOSTERHEIM.  75 

into  separate  arms,  opening  at  intervals  widely  apart. 
And  the  uses  of  such  secret  communications  with  the 
world  outside,  and  beyond  a  besieging  enemy,  in  a 
land  like  Germany,  with  its  prodigious  subdivision  of 
independent  states  and  free  cities,  were  far  greater 
than  they  could  have  been  in  any  one  great  continuous 
principality. 

In  many  fortified  places  these  passages  had  existed 
from  the  middle  ages.  In  Klosterheim  they  had  pos 
sibly  as  early  an  origin  ;  but  by  this  period  it  is  very 
probable  that  the  gradual  accumulation  of  rubbish, 
through  a  course  of  centuries,  would  have  unfitted 
them  for  use,  had  not  the  Peasants'  War,  in  the  time 
of  Luther's  Reformation,  little  more  than  one  hundred 
years  before,  given  occasion  for  their  use  and  repair. 
At  that  time  Klosterheim  had  stood  a  siege,  which, 
from  the  defect  of  artillery,  was  at  no  time  formidable 
in  a  military  sense  ;  but  as  a  blockade,  formed  sud 
denly  when  the  citizens  were  slenderly  furnished  with 
provisions,  it  would  certainly  have  succeeded,  and 
delivered  up  the  vast  wealth  of  the  convents  as  a  spoil 
to  the  peasantry,  had  it  not  been  for  one  in  particular 
of  these  subterraneous  passages,  which  opening  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  little  river  Iltiss,  in  a  thick  boccage, 
where  the  enemy  had  established  no  posts,  furnished 
the  means  of  introducing  a  continual  supply  of  fresh 
provisions,  to  the  great  triumph  of  the  garrison,  and 
the  utter  dismay  of  the  superstitious  peasants,  who 


76  KLOSTERHEIM. 

looked  upon  the  mysterious  supply  as  a  providential 
bounty  to  a  consecrated  cause. 

So  memorable  a  benefit  had  given  to  this  one  pas 
sage  a  publicity  and  an  historical  importance  which 
made  all  its  circumstances,  and  amongst  those  its  in 
ternal  mouth,  familiar  even  to  children.  But  this  was 
evidently  not  the  avenue  by  which  Maximilian  had 
escaped  into  the  forest.  For  it  opened  externally  on 
the  wrong  side  of  the  river,  whilst  everybody  knew 
that  its  domestic  opening  was  in  one  of  the  chapels  of 
the  schloss ;  and  another  circumstance  equally  decisive 
was,  that  a  long  flight  of  stairs,  by  which  it  descended 
below  the  bed  of  the  river,  made  it  impassable  to 
horses. 

Every  attempt,  however,  failed  to  trace  out  the 
mode  of  egress  for  the  present.  By  his  spies,  Adorni 
doubted  not  to  find  it  soon ;  and  in  the  meantime,  that 
as  much  as  possible  the  attention  of  the  public  might 
be  abstracted  from  the  travellers  and  their  concerns,  a 
public  proclamation  was  issued  forbidding  all  resorts  of 
crowds  to  the  walls.  These  were  everywhere  dispersed 
on  the  9th  ;  and  for  that  day  were  partially  obeyed. 
But  there  was  little  chance  that,  with  any  fresh  excite 
ment  to  the  popular  interest,  they  would  continue  to 
command  respect. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  77 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  morning  of  the  10th  at  length  arrived  —  that 
day  on  which  the  expected  travellers  from  Vienna, 
and  all  whom  they  had  collected  on  their  progress, 
ardently  looked  to  rejoin  their  long  separated  friends  in 
Klosterheim,  and  by  those  friends  were  not  less  ardent 
ly  looked  for.  On  each  side  there  were  the  same 
violent  yearnings ;  on  each  side  the  same  dismal  and 
overpowering  fears.  Each  party  arose  with  palpitating 
hearts :  the  one  looked  out  from  Falkenberg  with 
longing  eyes  to  discover  the  towers  of  Klosterheim  ; 
the  other,  from  the  upper  windows  or  roofs  of  Kloster 
heim,  seemed  as  if  they  could  consume  the  distance 
between  themselves  and  Falkenberg.  But  a  little  tract 
of  forest  ground  was  interposed  between  friends  and 
friends,  parents  and  children,  lovers  and  their  beloved. 
Not  more  than  eighteen  miles  of  shadowy  woods,  of 
lawns,  and  sylvan  glades,  divided  hearts  that  would 
either  have  encountered  death  or  many  deaths  for  the 
other.  These  were  regions  of  natural  peace  and  tran 
quillity,  that  in  any  ordinary  times  should  have  been 
peopled  by  no  worse  inhabitants  than  the  timid  hare 
scudding  homewards  to  its  form,  or  the  wild  deer 


78  KLOSTEKHEIM. 

sweeping  by  with  thunder  to  their  distant  lairs.  But 
now  from  every  glen  or  thicket  armed  marauders 
might  be  ready  to  start.  Every  gleam  of  sunshine  in 
some  seasons  was  reflected  from  the  glittering  arms  of 
parties  threading  the  intricacies  of  the  thickets;  and 
the  sudden  alarum  of  the  trumpet  rang  oftentimes  in  the 
nights,  and  awoke  the  echoes  that  for  centuries  had 
been  undisturbed  except  by  the  hunter's  horn,  in  the 
most  sequestered  haunts  of  these  vast  woods. 

Towards  noon  it  became  known,  by  signals  that  had 
been  previously  concerted  between  Maximilian  and  his 
college  friends,  that  the  party  were  advanced  upon 
their  road  from  Falkenberg,  and  therefore  must  of 
necessity  on  this  day  abide  the  final  trial.  As  this 
news  was  dispersed  abroad,  the  public  anxiety  rose  to 
so  feverish  a  point,  that  crowds  rushed  from  every 
quarter  to  the  walls;  and  it  was  not  judged  prudent  to 
measure  the  civic  strength  against  their  enthusiasm. 
For  an  hour  or  two  the  nature  of  the  ground  and  the 
woods  forbade  any  view  of  the  advancing  party :  but 
at  length,  some  time  before  the  light  failed,  the  head 
of  the  column,  and  soon  after  the  entire  body,  was 
descried  surmounting  a  little  hill  not  more  than  eight 
miles  distant.  The  black  mass,  presented  by  mounted 
travellers  and  baggage  wagons,  was  visible  to  piercing 
eyes  :  and  the  dullest  could  distinguish  the  glancing 
of  arms  which  at  times  flashed  upwards  from  the  more 
open  parts  of  the  forest. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  79 

Thus  far,  then,  their  friends  had  made  their  way 
without  injury :  and  this  point  was  judged  to  be  within 
nine  miles  distance.  But  in  thirty  or  forty  minutes, 
when  they  had  come  nearer  by  a  mile  and  a  half,  the 
scene  had  somewhat  changed.  A  heathy  tract  of 
ground,  perhaps  two  [miles  in  length,  opened  in  the 
centre  of  the  thickest  woods,  and  formed  a  little  island 
of  clear  ground  where  all  beside  was  tangled  and 
crowded  with  impediments.  Just  as  the  travelling 
party  began  to  deploy  out  of  the  woods  upon  this  area 
at  its  further  extremity,  a  considerable  body  of  mount 
ed  troops  emerged  from  the  forest,  which  had  hitherto 
concealed  them,  at  the  point  nearest  to  Klosterheim. 
They  made  way  rapidly  ;  and  in  less  than  half  a 
minute  it  became  evident,  by  the  motions  of  the  oppo 
site  party,  that  they  had  been  descried,  and  that  hasty 
preparations  were  making  for  receiving  them.  A 
dusky  mass,  probably  the  Black  Yagers,  galloped  up 
rapidly  to  the  front  and  formed  :  after  which  it  seemed 
to  some  eyes  that  the  whole  party  again  advanced,  but 
still  more  slowly  than  before. 

Every  heart  upon  the  walls  of  Klosterheim  palpi 
tated  with  emotion,  as  the  two  parties  neared  each 
other.  Many  almost  feared  to  draw  their  breath, 
many  writhed  their  persons  in  the  anguish  of  rueful 
expectation,  as  they  saw  the  moment  approach  when 
the  two  parties  would  shock  together.  At  length  it 
came  ;  and  to  the  astonishment  of  the  spectators,  not 


80  KLOSTEKHEIM. 

more  perhaps  than  of  the  travellers  themselves,  the 
whole  cavalcade  of  strangers  swept  by,  without  halting 
for  so  much  as  a  passing  salute  or  exchange  of  news. 

The  first  cloud,  then,  which  had  menaced  their 
friends,  was  passed  off  as  suddenly  as  it  had  gathered. 
But  this  by  some  people  was  thought  to  bear  no  favor 
able  construction.  To  ride  past  a  band  of  travellers 
from  remote  parts  on  such  uncourteous  terms  argued 
no  friendly  spirit ;  and  many  motives  might  be 
imagined  perfectly  consistent  with  hostile  intentions 
for  passing  the  travellers  unassailed,  and  thus  gaining 
the  means  of  coming  at  any  time  upon  their  rear. 
Prudent  persons  shook  their  heads  ;  and  the  issue  of 
an  affair  anticipated  with  so  much  anxiety  certainly 
did  not  diminish  it: 

It  was  now  four  o'clock  :  and  in  an  hour  or  less  it 
would  be  dark  ;  and,  considering  the  peculiar  difficul 
ties  of  the  ground  on  nearing  the  town,  and  the  increas 
ing  exhaustion  of  the  horses,  it  was  not  judged  possible 
that  a  party  of  travellers,  so  unequal  in  their  equip 
ments,  and  amongst  whom  the  weakest  was  now 
become  a  law  for  the  motion  of  the  quickest,  could 
reach  the  gates  of  Klosterheim  before  nine  o'clock. 

Soon  after  this,  and  just  before  the  daylight  faded, 
the  travellers  reached  the  nearer  end  of  the  heath,  and 
again  entered  the  woods.  The  cold  and  the  darkness 
were  now  becoming  greater  at  every  instant,  and  it 
might  have  been  expected  that  the  great  mass  of  the 


KLOSTFRHEIM.  81 

spectators  would  leave  their  station  ;  but  such  was  the 
intensity  of  the  public  interest,  that  few  quitted  the 
walls  except  for  the  purpose  of  reinforcing  their  ability 
to  stay  and  watch  the  progress  of  their  friends.  This 
could  be  done  with  even  greater  effect  as  the  darkness 
deepened,  for  every  second  horseman  carried  a  torch  ; 
and  as  much  perhaps  by  way  of  signal  to  their  friends 
in  Klosterheim,  as  for  their  own  convenience,  prodig 
ious  flambeaux  were  borne  aloft  on  halberds.  These 
rose  to  a  height  which  surmounted  all  the  lower  bushes, 
and  were  visible  in  all  parts  of  the  woods,  —  even  the 
smaller  lights,  in  the  leafless  state  of  the  trees  at  this 
season  of  the  year,  could  be  generally  traced  without 
difficulty  ;  and  composing  a  brilliant  chain  of  glittering 
points,  as  it  curved  and  humored  the  road  amongst  the 
labyrinths  of  the  forest,  would  have  produced  a  singu 
larly  striking  effect  to  eyes  at  leisure  to  enjoy  it. 

In  this  way,  for  about  three  hours,  the  travellers 
continued  to  advance  unmolested,  and  to  be  traced  by 
their  friends  in  Klosterheim.  It  was  now  considerably 
after  seven  o'clock,  and  perhaps  an  hour,  or  at  most 
an  hour  and  a  half,  would  bring  them  to  the  city  gates. 
All  hearts  began  to  beat  high  with  expectation,  and 
hopes  were  loudly  and  confidently  expressed  through 
every  part  of  the  crowd  that  the  danger  might  now 
be  considered  as  past.  Suddenly,  as  if  expressly 
to  rebuke  the  too  presumptuous  confidence  of  those 
who  were  thus  thoughtlessly  sanguine,  the  blare  of  a 
6 


82  KLOSTERHEIM. 

trumpet  was  heard  from  a  different  quarter  of  the 
forest,  and  about  two  miles  to  the  right  of  the  city. 
Every  eye  was  fastened  eagerly  upon  the  spot  from 
which  the  notes  issued.  Probably  ftie  signal  had  pro 
ceeded  from  a  small  party  in  advance  of  a  greater  ;  for 
in  the  same  direction,  but  at  a  much  greater  distance, 
perhaps  not  less  than  three  miles  in  the  rear  of  the 
trumpet,  a  very  large  body  of  horse  was  now  descried 
coming  on  at  a  great  pace  upon  the  line  already  indi 
cated  by  the  trumpet.  The  extent  of  the  column  might 
be  estimated  by  the  long  array  of  torches,  which  were 
carried  apparently  by  every  fourth  or  fifth  man  ;  and 
that  they  were  horsemen,  was  manifest  from  the  very 
rapid  pace  at  which  they  advanced. 

At  this  spectacle  a  cry  of  consternation  ran  along 
the  whole  walls  of  Klosterheim.  Here  then  at  last 
were  coming  the  spoilers  and  butchers  of  their  friends ; 
for  the  road  upon  which  they  were  advancing  issued  at 
right  angles  into  that  upon  which  the  travellers,  appa 
rently  unwarned  of  their  danger,  were  moving.  The 
hideous  scene  of  carnage  would  possibly  pass  immedi 
ately  below  their  own  eyes  ;  for  the  point  of  junction 
between  the  two  roads  was  directly  commanded  by  the 
eye  from  the  city  walls  ;  and  upon  computing  the  ap 
parent  proportions  of  speed  between  the  two  parties, 
it  seemed  likely  enough  that  upon  this  very  ground, 
the  best  fitted  of  any  that  could  have  been  selected,  in 
a  scenical  sense,  as  a  stage  for  bringing  a  spectacle 


KLOSTERHEIM.  83 

below  the  eyes  of  Klosterheim,  the  most  agitating  of 
spectacles  would  be  exhibited,  —  friends  and  kinsmen 
engaged  in  mortal  struggle  with  remorseless  free 
booters,  under  circumstances  which  denied  to  them 
selves  any  chance  of  offering  assistance. 

Exactly  at  this  point  of  time  arose  a  dense  mist, 
which  wrapped  the  whole  forest  in  darkness,  and 
withdrew  from  the  eyes  of  the  agitated  Klosterheimers 
friends  and  foes  alike.  They  continued,  however,  to 
occupy  the  walls,  endeavoring  to  penetrate  the  veil 
which  now  concealed  the  fortunes  of  their  travelling 
friends,  by  mere  energy  and  intensity  of  attention. 
The  mist,  meantime,  did  not  disperse,  but  rather  con 
tinued  to  deepen  :  the  two  parties,  however,  gradually 
drew  so  much  nearer,  that  some  judgment  could  be 
at  length  formed  of  their  motions  and  position  merely 
by  the  ear.  From  the  stationary  character  of  the 
sounds,  and  the  continual  recurrence  of  charges  and 
retreats  sounded  upon  the  trumpet,  it  became  evident 
that  the  travellers  and  the  enemy  had  at  length  met, 
and  too  probable  that  they  were  engaged  in  a  san 
guinary  combat.  Anxiety  had  now  reached  its  utmost 
height;  and  some  were  obliged  to  leave  the  walls,  or 
were  carried  away  by  their  friends,  under  the  effects 
of  overwrought  sensibility. 

Ten  o'clock  had  now  struck,  and  for  some  time  the 
sounds  had  been  growing  sensibly  weaker,  and  at  last 
it  was  manifest  that  the  two  parties  had  separated,  and 


84  KLOSTERIIEIM. 

that  one  at  least  was  moving  off  from  the  scene  of 
action ;  and,  as  the  sounds  grew  feebler  and  feebler, 
there  could  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  the  enemy  who 
was  drawing  off  into  the  distance  from  the  field  of 
battle. 

The  enemy  !  ay,  but  how  ?  Under  what  circum 
stances  ?  As  victor  ?  Perhaps  even  as  the  captor  of 
their  friends  ?  Or,  if  not,  and  he  were  really  retread 
ing  as  a  fugitive  and  beaten  foe,  with  what  hideous 
sacrifices  on  the  part  of  their  friends  might  not  that 
result  have  been  purchased  ? 

Long  and  dreary  was  the  interval  before  these 
questions  could  be  answered.  Full  three  hours  had 
elapsed  since  the  last  sound  of  a  trumpet  had  been 
heard  :  it  was  now  one  o'clock,  and  as  yet  no  trace 
of  the  travellers  had  been  discovered  in  any  quarter. 
The  most  hopeful  began  to  despond,  and  general 
lamentations  prevailed  throughout  Klosterheim. 

Suddenly,  however,  a  dull  sound  arose  within  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  from  the  city  gate,  as  of  some 
feeble  attempt  to  blow  a  blast  upon  a  trumpet.  In 
five  minutes  more  a  louder  blast  was  sounded  close  to 
the  gate.  Questions  were  joyfully  put,  and  as  joy 
fully  answered.  The  usual  precautions  were  rapidly 
gone  through ;  and  the  officer  of  the  watch  being 
speedily  satisfied  as  to  the  safety  of  the  measure,  the 
gates  were  thrown  open,  and  the  unfortunate  trav 
ellers,  exhausted  by  fatigue,  hardships,  and  suffering 


KLOSTERHEIM.  85 

of  every  description,  were  at  length  admitted  into  the 
bosom  of  a  friendly  town. 

The  spectacle  was  hideous  which  the  long  caval 
cade  exhibited  as  it  wound  up  the  steep  streets  which 
led  to  the  market-place.  Wagons  fractured  and  splin 
tered  in  every  direction,  upon  which  were  stretched 
numbers  of  gallant  soldiers,  with  wounds  hastily 
dressed,  from  which  the  blood  had  poured  in  streams 
over  their  gay  habiliments ;  horses,  whose  limbs  had 
been  mangled  by  the  sabre  ;  and  coaches  or  caleches 
loaded  with  burthens  of  dead  and  dying ;  these  were 
amongst  the  objects  which  occupied  the  van  in  the 
line  of  march,  as  the  travellers  defiled  through  Klos- 
terheim.  The  vast  variety  of  faces,  dresses,  imple 
ments  of  war,  or  ensigns  of  rank,  thrown  together 
in  the  confusion  of  night  and  retreat,  illuminated  at 
intervals  by  bright  streams  of  light  from  torches  or 
candles  in  the  streets,  or  at  the  windows  of  the  houses, 
composed  a  picture  which  resembled  the  chaos  of  a 
dream,  rather  than  any  ordinary  spectacle  of  human 
life. 

In  the  market-place  the  whole  party  were  gradually 
assembled,  and  there  it  was  intended  that  they  should 
receive  the  billets  for  their  several  quarters.  But  such 
was  the  pressure  of  friends  and  relatives  gathering  from 
all  directions,  to  salute  and  welcome  the  objects  of 
their  affectionate  anxiety,  or  to  inquire  after  their  fate ; 
so  tumultuous  was  the  conflict  of  grief  and  joy,  (and 


86  KLOSTERHEIM. 

not  seldom  in  the  very  same  group),  that  for  a  long 
time  no  authority  could  control  the  violence  of  public 
feeling,  or  enforce  the  arrangements  which  had  been 
adopted  for  the  night.  Nor  was  it  even  easy  to  learn, 
where  the  questions  were  put  by  so  many  voices  at 
once,  what  had  been  the  history  of  the  night.  It  was 
at  length,  however,  collected,  that  they  had  been  met 
and  attacked  with  great  fury  by  Holkerstein,  or  a 
party  acting  under  one  of  his  lieutenants.  Their  own 
march  had  been  so  warily  conducted  after  nightfall, 
that  this  attack  did  not  find  them  unprepared.  A 
barrier  of  coaches  and  wagons  had  been  speedily 
formed  in  such  an  arrangement  as  to  cripple  the 
enemy's  movements,  and  to  neutralize  great  part  of 
his  superiority  in  the  quality  of  his  horses.  The 
engagement,  however,  had  been  severe  ;  and  the 
enemy's  attack,  though  many  times  baffled,  had  been 
as  often  renewed,  until  at  length,  the  young  general 
Maximilian,  seeing  that  the  affair  tended  to  no  appa 
rent  termination,  that  the  bloodshed  was  great,  and 
that  the  horses  were  beginning  to  knock  up  under 
the  fatigue  of  such  severe  service,  had  brought  up  the 
very  elite  of  his' reserve,  placed  himself  at  their  head, 
and  making  a  dash  expressly  at  their  leader,  had  the 
good  fortune  to  cut  him  down.  The  dcsperaleness 
of  the  charge,  added  to  the  loss  of  their  leader,  had 
intimidated  the  enemy,  who  now  began  to  draw  off 
as  from  an  enterprise  which  was  likely  to  cost  them 


KLOSTERHEIM.  87 

more  blood  than  a  final  success  could  have  rewarded. 
Unfortunately,  however,  Maximilian,  disabled  by  a 
severe  wound,  and  entangled  by  his  horse  amongst  the 
enemy,  had  been  carried  off  a  prisoner.  In  the 
course  of  the  battle,  all  their  torches  had  been  extin 
guished  ;  and  this  circumstance,  as  much  as  the  rough 
ness  of  the  road,  the  ruinous  condition  of  their 
carriages  and  appointments,  and  their  own  exhaus 
tion,  had  occasioned  their  long  delay  in  reaching 
Klosterheim,  after  the  battle  was  at  an  end.  Signals 
they  had  not  ventured  to  make  ;  for  they  were  naturally 
afraid  of  drawing  upon  their  track  any  fresh  party 
of  marauders  by  so  open  a  warning  of  their  course 
as  the  sound  of  a  trumpet. 

These  explanations  were  rapidly  dispersed  through 
Klosterheim  ;  party  after  party  drew  off  to  their  quar 
ters  ;  and  at  length  the  agitated  city  was  once  again 
restored  to  peace.  The  Lady  Paulina  had  been 
amongst  the  first  to  retire.  She  was  met  by  the  Lady 
Abbess  of  a  principal  convent  in  Klosterheim,  to 
whose  care  she  had  been  recommended  by  the  Em 
peror.  The  Landgrave  also  had  furnished  her  with 
a  guard  of  honor;  but  all  expressions  of  respect,  or 
even  of  kindness,  seemed  thrown  away  upon  her, 
so  wholly  was  she  absorbed  in  grief  for  the  capture 
of  Maximilian,  and  in  gloomy  anticipations  of  his 
impending  fate. 


88  KLOSTERHE1M. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE  city  of  Klosterheim  was  now  abandoned  to 
itself,  and  strictly  shut  up  within  its  own  walls.  All 
roaming  beyond  those  limits  was  now  indeed  forbid 
den  even  more  effectually  by  the  sword  of  the  enemy 
than  by  the  edicts  of  the  Landgrave.  War  was 
manifestly  gathering  in  its  neighborhood.  Little 
towns  and  castles  within  a  range  of  seventy  miles, 
on  almost  every  side,  were  now  daily  occupied  by 
Imperial  or  Swedish  troops.  Not  a  week  passed 
without  some  news  of  fresh  military  accessions,  or 
of  skirmishes  between  parties  of  hostile  foragers. 
Through  the  adjacent  country,  spite  of  the  severe 
weather,  bodies  of  armed  men  were  weaving  to  and 
fro,  fast  as  a  weaver's  shuttle.  The  forest  rang  with 
.alarums,  and  sometimes  under  gleams  of  sunshine, 
the  leafless  woods  seemed  on  fire  with  the  restless 
splendor  of  spear  and  sword,  morion  and  breastplate, 
or  the  glittering  equipments  of  the  Imperial  cavalry. 
Couriers,  or-  Bohemian  gipsies,  which  latter  were  a 
class  of  people  at  this  time  employed  by  all  sides  as 
spies  or  messengers,  continually  stole  in  with  secret 


KLOSTERHEIM.  89 

despatches  to  the  Landgrave,  or  (under  the  color  of 
bringing  public  news,  and  the  reports  of  military 
movements)  to  execute  some  private  mission  for  rich 
employers  in  town  ;  sometimes  making  even  this 
clandestine  business  but  a  cover  to  other  purposes, 
too  nearly  connected  with  treason,  or  reputed  treason, 
to  admit  of  any  but  oral  communication. 

What  were  the  ulterior  views  in  this  large  accu 
mulation  of  military  force,  no  man  pretended  to  know. 
A  great  battle,  for  various  reasons,  was  not  expected. 
But  changes  were  so  sudden,  and  the  counsels  of 
each  day  so  often  depended  on  the  accidents  of  the 
morning,  that  an  entire  campaign  might  easily  be 
brought  on,  or  the  whole  burthen  of  war  for  years  to 
come  might  be  transferred  to  this  quarter  of  the  land, 
without  causing  any  very  great  surprise.  Meantime, 
enough  was  done  already  to  give  a  full  foretaste  of 
war  and  its  miseries  to  this  sequestered  nook  —  so 
long  unvisited  by  that  hideous  scourge. 

In  the  forest,  where  the  inhabitants  were  none,  ex 
cepting  those  who  lived  upon  the  borders,  and  small 
establishments  of  the  Landgrave's  servants  at  different 
points,  for  executing  the  duties  of  the  'forest  or  the 
chase,  this  change  expressed  itself  chiefly  by  the 
tumultuous  uproar  of  the  wild  deer,  upon  whom  a 
murderous  war  was  kept  up  by  parties  detached  daily 
from  remote  and  opposite  quarters  to  collect  provisions 
for  the  half-starving  garrisons,  so  recently,  and  with  so 


90  KLOSTERHEIM. 

little  previous  preparation,  multiplied  on  the  forest 
skirts.  For  though  the  country  had  been  yet  unex 
hausted  by  war,  too  large  a  proportion  of  the  tracts 
adjacent  to  the  garrisons  were  in  a  wild  sylvan  con 
dition,  to  afford  any  continued  supplies  to  so  large  and 
sudden  an  increase  of  the  population  ;  more  especially 
as,  under  the  rumors  of  this  change,  every  walled  town 
in  a  compass  of  one  hundred  miles,  many  of  them 
capable  of  resisting  a  sudden  coup-de-main,  and  reso 
lutely  closing  their  gates  upon  either  party,  had  already 
possessed  themselves  by  purchase  of  all  the  surplus 
supplies  which  the  country  yielded.  In  such  a  state 
of  things,  the  wild  deer  became  an  object  of  valuable 
consideration  to  all  parties,  and  a  murderous  war  was 
made  upon  them  from  every  side  of  the  forest.  From 
the  city  walls  they  were  seen  in  sweeping  droves, 
flying  before  the  Swedish  cavalry  for  a  course  of  ten, 
fifteen,  or  even  thirty  miles,  until  headed,  and  com 
pelled  to  turn  by  another  party  breaking  suddenly  from 
a  covert  where  they  had  been  waiting  their  approach. 
Sometimes  it  would  happen  that  this  second  party 
proved  to  be  a  body  of  Imperialists,  who  were  carried 
by  the  ardor  of  the  chase  into  the  very  centre  of  their 
enemies  before  either  was  aware  of  any  hostile  ap 
proach.  Then,  according  to  circumstances,  came 
sudden  flight  or  tumultuary  skirmish  ;  the  woods  rang 
with  the  hasty  summons  of  the  trumpet ;  the  deer 
reeled  off  aslant  from  the  furious  shock,  and  benefit- 


KLOSTERHEIM.  91 

ing  for  the  moment  by  those  fierce  hostilities,  originally 
the  cause  of  their  persecution,  fled  far  away  from  the 
scene  of  strife;  and  not  unfrequently  came  thundering 
beneath  the  city  walls,  and  reporting  to  the  spectators 
above,  by  their  agitation  and  affrighted  eyes,  those 
tumultuous  disturbances  in  some  remoter  part  of  the 
forest,  which  had  already  Breached  them  in  an  imper 
fect  way,  by  the  interrupted  and  recurring  echoes  of 
the  points  of  war  —  charges  or  retreats  —  sounded 
upon  the  trumpet. 

But,  whilst  on  the  outside  of  her  walls  Klosterheim 
beheld  this  unpopulous  region  all  alive  with  military 
license  and  outrage,  she  suffered  no  violence  from 
either  party  herself.  This  immunity  she  owed  to  her 
peculiar  political  situation.  The  Emperor  had  motives 
for  conciliating  the  city  ;  the  Swedes  for  conciliating 
the  Landgrave  :  indeed  they  were  supposed  to  have 
made  a  secret  alliance  with  him,  for  purposes  known 
only  to  the  contracting  parties.  And  the  difference 
between  the  two  patrons  was  simply  this,  that  the 
Emperor  was  sincere,  and,  if  not  disinterested,  had 
an  interest  concurring  with  that  of  Klosterheim,  in  the 
paternal  protection  which  he  offered  ;  whereas  the 
Swedes  in  this,  as  in  all  their  arrangements,  regarding 
Germany  as  a  foreign  country,  looked  only  to  the 
final  advantages  of  Sweden  or  its  German  depend 
encies,  and  to  the  weight  with  such  alliances  would 
procure  them  in  a  general  pacification.  And  hence, 


92  KLOSTERHEIM. 

in  the  war  which  both  combined  to  make  upon  the 
forest,  the  one  party  professed  to  commit  spoil  upon 
the  Landgrave,  as  distinguished  from  the  city ;  whilst 
the  Swedish  allies  of  that  prince  prosecuted  their 
ravages  in  the  Landgrave's  -name,  as  essential  to  the 
support  of  his  cause. 

For  the  present,  however,  the  Swedes  were  the 
preponderant  party  in  the  neighborhood  ;  they  had  for 
tified  the  chateau  of  Falkenberg,  and  made  it  a  very 
strong  military  post ;  at  the  same  time,  however,  send 
ing  in  to  Klosterheim  whatsoever  was  valuable  amongst 
the  furniture  of  that  establishment,  with  a  care  which 
of  itself  proclaimed  the  footing  upon  which  they  were 
anxious  to  stand  with  the  Landgrave. 

Encouraged  by  the  vicinity  of  his  military  friends, 
that  Prince  now  began  to  take  a  harsher  tone  in  Klos 
terheim.  The  minor  princes  of  Germany  at  that  day 
were  all  tyrants  in  virtue  of  their  privileges ;  and  if 
in  some  rarer  cases  they  exercised  these  privileges 
in  a  forbearing  spirit,  their  subjects  were  well  aware 
that  they  were  indebted  for  this  extraordinary  indul 
gence  to  the  temper  and  gracious  nature  of  the  in 
dividual,  not  to  the  firm  protection  of  the  laws.  But 
the  most  reasonable  and  mildest  of  the  German  princes 
had  been  little  taught  at  that  day  to  brook  opposition ; 
and  the  Landgrave  was  by  nature,  and  the  gloomi 
ness  of  his  constitutional  temperament,  of  all  men  the 
last  to  learn  that  lesson  readily.  He  had  already  met 


KLOSTERHEIM.  93 

with  just  sufficient  opposition  from  the  civic  body  and 
the  university  interest  to  excite  his  passion  for  revenge. 
Ample  indemnification  he  determined  upon  for  his 
wounded  pride ;  and  he  believed  that  the  time  and 
circumstances  were  now  matured  for  favoring  his 
most  vindictive  schemes.  The  Swedes  were  at  hand  ; 
and  a  slight  struggle  with  the  citizens  would  remove 
all  obstacles  to  their  admission  into  the  garrison ; 
though,  for  some  private  reasons,  he  wished  to  abstain 
from  this  extremity,  if  it  should  prove  possible.  Maxi 
milian  also  was  absent,  and  might  never  return.  The 
rumor  was  even  that  he  was  killed  ;  and  though  the 
caution  of  Adorni  and  the  Landgrave  led  them  to  a 
hesitating  reliance  upon  what  might  be  a  political 
fabrication  of  the  opposite  party,  yet  at  all  events  he 
was  detained  from  Klostcrheim  by  some  pressing  ne 
cessity  ;  and  the  period  of  his  absence,  whether  long 
or  short,  the  Landgrave  resolved  to  improve  in  such 
a  way  as  should  make  his  return  unavailing. 

Of  Maximilian  the  Landgrave  had  no  personal 
knowledge ;  he  had  not  so  much  as  seen  him.  But  by 
his  spies  and  intelligencers  he  was  well  aware  that  he 
had  been  the  chief  combiner  and  animator  of  the  Im 
perial  party  against  himself  in  the  university,  and  by 
his  presence  had  given  life  and  confidence  to  that 
party  in  the  city  which  did  not  expressly  acknowledge 
him  as  their  head.  He  was  aware  of  the  favor  which 
Maximilian  enjoyed  with  the  Emperor,  and  knew  in 


94  KLOSTERHEIM. 

general,  from  public  report,  the  brilliancy  of  those 
military  services  on  which  it  had  been  built.  That 
he  was  likely  to  prove  a  formidable  opponent,  had  he 
continued  in  Klosterheim,  the  Landgrave  knew  too 
well ;  and  upon  the  advantage  over  him  which  he  had 
now  gained,  though  otherwise  it  should  prove  only  a 
temporary  one,  he  determined  to  found  a  permanent 
obstacle  to  the  Emperor's  views.  As  a  preliminary 
step,  he  prepared  to  crush  all  opposition  in  Kloster 
heim  ;  a  purpose  which  was  equally  important  to  his 
vengeance  and  his  policy. 

This  system  he  opened  with  a  series  of  tyrannical 
regulations,  some  of  which  gave  the  more  offence  that 
they  seemed  wholly  capricious  and  insulting.  The 
students  were  confined  to  their  college  bounds,  except 
at  stated  intervals  ;  were  subject  to  a  military  muster, 
or  calling  over  of  names,  every  evening;  were  re 
quired  to  receive  sentinels  within  the  extensive  courts 
of  their  own  college,  and  at  length  a  small  court  of 
guard  ;  with  numerous  other  occasional  marks,  as 
opportunities  offered,  of  princely  discountenance  and 
anger. 

In  the  university,  at  that  time,  from  local  causes, 
many  young  men  of  rank  and  family  were  collected. 
Those  even,  who  had  taken  no  previous  part  in  the 
cause  of  the  Klosterheimers,  were  now  roused  to  a 
sense  of  personal  indignity.  And  as  soon  as  the  light 
was  departed,  a  large  body  of  them  collected  at  the 


KLOSTERHEIM.  95 

rooms  of  Count  St.  Aldenhcim,  whose  rank  promised  a 
suitable  countenance  to  their  purpose,  whilst  his  youth 
seemed  a  pledge  for  the  requisite  activity. 

The  Count  was  a  younger  brother  of  the  Palsgrave 
of  Birkenfeld,  and  maintained  a  sumptuous  establish 
ment  in  Klosterheim.  Whilst  the  state  of  the  forest 
had  allowed  of  hunting,  hawking,  or  other  amuse 
ments,  no  man  had  exhibited  so  fine  a  stud  of  horses. 
No  man  had  so  large  a  train  of  servants  ;  no  man 
entertained  his  friends  with  such  magnificent  hospi 
talities.  His  generosity,  his  splendor,  his  fine  person, 
and  the  courtesy  with  which  he  relieved  the  humblest 
people  from  the  oppression  of  his  rank,  had  given  him 
a  popularity  amongst  the  students.  His  courage  had 
been  tried  in  battle  :  but,  after  all,  it  was  doubted 
whether  he  were  not  of  too  luxurious  a  turn  to  under 
take  any  cause  which  called  for  much  exertion  ;  for 
the  death  of  a  rich  Abbess,  who  had  left  the  whole  of 
an  immense  fortune  to  the  Count,  as  her  favorite 
nephew,  had  given  him  another  motive  for  cultivating 
peaceful  pursuits,  to  which  few  men  were,  constitution 
ally,  better  disposed. 

It  was  the  time  of  day  when  the  Count  was  sure  to 
be  found  at  home  with  a  joyous  party  of  friends. 
Magnificent  chandeliers  shed  light  upon  a  table  fur 
nished  with  every  description  of  costly  wines  produced 
in  Europe.  According  to  the  custom  of  the  times, 
these  were  drunk  in  cups  of  silver  or  gold  ;  and  an 


96  KLOSTERHEIM. 

opportunity  was  thus  gained,  which  St.  Aldenheim  had 
not  lost,  of  making  a  magnificent  display  of  luxury 
without  ostentation.  The  ruby  wine  glittered  in  the 
jewelled  goblet  which  the  Count  had  raised  to  his  lips, 
at  the  very  moment  when  the  students  entered. 

"  Welcome,  friends,"  said  the  Count  St.  Aldenheim, 
putting  down  his  cup,  "  welcome  always  ;  but  never 
more  than  at  this  hour,  when  wine  and  good  fellowship 
teach  us  to  know  the  value  of  our  youth." 

"  Thanks,  Count,  from  all  of  us.  But  the  fellowship 
we  seek  at  present  must  be  of  another  temper  ;  our 
errand  is  of  business." 

"  Then,  friends,  it  shall  rest  until  to-morrow.  Not 
for  the  papacy,  to  which  my  good  aunt  would  have 
raised  a  ladder  for  me  of  three  steps,  —  Abbot,  Bishop, 
Cardinal,  would  I  renounce  the  Tokay  of  to-night  for 
the  business  of  to-morrow.  Come,  gentlemen,  let  us 
drink  my  aunt's  health. 

"  Memory,  you  would  say,  Count." 

"Memory,  most  learned  friend,  you  are  right; 
Ah  !  gentlemen,  she  was  a  woman  worthy  to  be  had 
in  remembrance  :  for  she  invented  a  capital  plaster 
for  gunshot  wounds ;  and  a  jollier  old  fellow  over  a 
bottle  of  Tokay  there  is  not  at  this  day  in  Suabia,  or 
in  the  Swedish  camp.  And  that  reminds  me  to  ask, 
gentlemen,  have  any  of  you  heard  that  Gustavus 
Horn  is  expected  at  Falkenberg  ?  Such  news  is 
astir  ;  and  be  sure  of  this  —  that  in  such  a  case,  we 


KLOSTKRUEIM.  97 

have  cracked  crowns  to  look  for.  I  know  the  man. 
And  many  a  hard  night's  watching  he  has  cost  me  ; 
for  which,  if  you  please,  gentlemen,  we  will  drink  his 
health." 

"  Hut  our  business,  dear  Count  —  " 

"  Shall  wait,  please  God,  until  to-morrow ;  for  this 
is  the  time  when  man  and  beast  repose." 

"  And  truly,  Count,  weare  like  —  as  you  take  things 
—  to  be  numbered  with  the  last.  Fie,  Count  St.  Alden- 
heim  !  are  you  the  man  that  would  have  us  suffer 
those  things  tamely  which  the  Landgrave  has  begun?" 

"  And  what  now  hath  his  Serenity  been  doing  ? 
Doth  he  meditate  to  abolish  burgundy  ?  If  so,,  my 
faith  !  but  we  are,  as  you  observe,  little  above  the 
brutes.  Or,  peradventure,  will  he  forbid  laughing  — 
his  I  lighness  being  little  that  way  given  himself?  " 

"  Count  St.  Aldenheim  it  pleases  you  to  jest.  But 
we  are  assured  that  you  know  as  well  as  we,  and 
relish  no  better,  the  insults  which  the  Landgrave  is 
heaping  upon  us  all.  For  example,  the  sentinel  at 
your  own  door  —  doubtless  you  marked  him  ?  How 
liked  you  him  ?  " 

"  Methought  he  looked  cold  and  blue.  So  I  sent 
him  a  goblet  of  Johannisberg." 

"  You  did  ?  and  the  little  court  of  guard  —  you  have 
seen  that  1  and  Colonel  Von  Aremberg,  how  think  you 
of  him  ? " 

"  Why  surely  now  he's  a  handsome  man :  pity  he 
7 


98 


KLOSTERHEIM. 


wears  so  fiery  a  scarf!  Shall  we  drink  his  health, 
gentlemen  ?  " 

"  Health  to  the  great  fiend  first ! " 

"As  you  please,  gentlemen  :  it  is  for  you  to  regulate 
the  precedency.  But  at  least, 

*'  Here's  to  my  aunt  —  the  jolly  old  sinner, 
That  fasted  each  day,  from  breakfast  to  dinner  ! 
Saw  any  man  yet  such  an  orthodox  fellow, 
In  the  morning  when  sober,  in  the  evening  when  mellow  ? 
Saw  any  man  yet,"  dec. 

"  Count,  farewell !  "  —  interrupted  the  leader  of  the 
partx  ;  and  all  turned  round  indignantly  to  leave  the 
room. 

"  Farewell,  gentleman,  as  you  positively  will  not 
drink  my  aunt's  health  ;  though,  after  all,  she  was  a 
worthy  fellow  ;  and  her  plaster  for  gunshot  wounds, — " 

But  with  that  word  the  door  closed  upon  the  Count's 
farewell  words.  Suddenly  taking  up  a  hat  which  lay 
upon  the  ground,  he  exclaimed,  "  Ah  !  behold  !  one 
of  my  friends  has  left  his  hat.  Truly  he  may  chance 
to  want  it  on  a  frosty  night."  And,  so  saying,  he 
hastily  rushed  after  the  .party,  whom  he  found  already 
on  the  steps  of  the  portico.  Seizing  tho  hand  of  the 
leader,  he  whispered, — 

"  Friend  !  do  you  know  me  so  little,  as  to  apprehend 
my  jesting  in  a  serious  sense  ?  Know  that  two  of 
those,  whom  you  saw  on  my  right  hand,  are  spies  of 


K  LOST  Kit  II  KIM.  99 

the  Landgrave  ?  Their  visit  to  me,  I  question  not, 
was  purposely  made  to  catch  some  such  discoveries. 
as  you,  my  friends,  would  too  surely  have  thrown  in 
their  way,  hut  for  my  determined  rattling.  At  this 
time,  I  must  not  stay.  Come  again  after  midnight  — 
farewell." 

And  then  in  a  voice  to  reach  his  guests  within,  he 
shouted,  "  Gentlemen,  my  aunt,  the  Abbot  of  Ingel- 
hcitn,  —  Abbess,  I  would  say,  held  that  her  spurs  were 
for  her  heels,  and  her  beaver  for  her  head.  Where 
upon,  Baron,  I  return  you  your  hat." 

Meantime,  the  two  insidious  intelligencers  of  the 
Landgrave  returned  to  the  palace  with  discoveries,  not 
so  ample  as  they  were  on  the  point  of  surprising,  but 
sufficient  to  earn  thanks  for  themselves,  and  to  guide 
the  counsels  of  their  masters. 


100  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THAT  same  night  a  full  meeting  of  the  most  distin 
guished  students  was  assembled  at  the  mansion  of 
Count  St.  Aldenheim.  Much  stormy  discussion  arose 
upon  two  points  ;  first,  upon  the  particular  means  by 
which  they  were  to  pursue  an  end  upon  which  all  were 
unanimous.  Upon  that,  however,  they  were  able  for 
the  present  to  arrive  at  a  preliminary  arrangement 
with  sufficient  harmony.  This  was,  to  repair  in  a  body, 
with  Count  St.  Aldenheim  at  their  head,  to  the  castle, 
and  there  to  demand  an  audience  of  the  Landgrave,  at 
which  a  strong  remonstrance  was  to  be  laid  before  his 
highness,  and  their  determination  avowed  to  repel  the 
indignities  thrust  upon  them,  with  their  united  forces. 
On  the  second  they  were  more  at  variance.  It  hap 
pened  that  many  of  the  persons  present,  and  amongst 
them  Count  St.  Aldenheim,  were  friends  of  Maxi 
milian.  A  few,  on  the  other  hand,  there  were,  who, 
either  from  jealousy  of  his  distinguished  merit,  hated 
him  ;  or  as  good  citizens  of  Klosterheim,  and  con 
nected  by  old  family  ties  with  the  interests  of  that 
town,  were  disposed  to  charge  Maximilian  with  ambi- 


KLOSTKKHi:i\r.  101 

tious  views  of  private  aggrandizement  at  the  expense 
of  the  ei;\ .  grounded  upon  the  Kniperor's  favor,  or 
upon  a  supposed  marriage  with  some  lady  of  the  Im 
perial  house.  For  the  story  of  Paulina's  and  Maxi 
milian's  mutual  attachment  had  transpired  through 
many  of  the  travellers  ;  but  with  some  circumstances 
of  fiction.  In  defending  Maximilian  upon  those  charges, 
his  friends  had  betrayed  a  natural  warmth  at  the  injus- 
i  >llered  to  his  character;  and  the  liveliness  of  the 
dispute  on  this  point,  had  nearly  ended  in  a  way  fatal 
to  their  unanimity  on  the  immediate  question  at  issue. 
Good  sense,  however,  and  indignation  at  the  Land 
grave,  finally  brought  them  round  again  to  their  first 
resolution  ;  and  they  separated  with  the  unanimous 
intention  of  meeting  at  noon  on  the  following  day,  for 
the  purpose  of  carrying  it  into  effect. 

But  their  unanimity  on  this  point  was  of  little  avail  ; 
for  at  an  early  hour  on  the  following  morning,  every 
one  of  those  who  had  been  present  at  the  meeting,  was 
arrested  by  a  file  of  soldiers  on  a  charge  of  conspiracy, 
and  marched  off  to  one  of  the  city  prisons.  The  Count 
St.  Aldenheim  was  himself  the  sole  exception  ;  and 
this  was  a  distinction  odious  to  his  generous  nature,  as 
it  drew  upon  him  a  cloud  of  suspicion.  He  was  sen 
sible  that  he  would  be  supposed  to  owe  his  privilege  to 
some  discovery  or  act  of  treachery,  more  or  less,  by 
which  he  had  merited  the  favor  of  the  Landgrave.  Tin- 
fact  was,  that  in  the  indulgence  shown  to  the  Count,  no 


102  KLOSTERHEIM. 

motive  had  influenced  the  Landgrave  but  a  politic  con 
sideration  of  the  great  favor  and  influence  which  the 
Count's  brother,  the  Palsgrave,  at  this  moment  enjoyed 
in  the  camp  of  his  own  Swedish  allies.  On  this  prin 
ciple  of  policy,  the  Landgrave  contented  himself  with 
placing  St.  Aldenheim  under  a  slight  military  confine 
ment  to  his  own  house,  under  the  guard  of  a  few  sen 
tinels  posted  in  his  hall. 

For  him,  therefore,  under  the  powerful  protection 
which  he  enjoyed  elsewhere,  there  was  no  great 
anxiety  entertained.  But  for  the  rest,  many  of  whom 
had  no  friends,  or  friends  who  did  them  the  ill  service 
of  enemies,  being  in  fact  regarded  as  enemies  by  the 
Landgrave  and  his  council,  serious  fears  were  enter 
tained  by  the  whole  city.  Their  situation  was  evidently 
critical.  The  Landgrave  had  them  in  his  power.  He 
was  notoriously  a  man  of  gloomy  and  malignant  pas 
sions  ;  had  been  educated,  as  all  European  princes 
then  were,  in  the  notions  of  a  plenary  and  despotic 
right  over  the  lives  of  his  subjects,  in  any  case  where 
they  lifted  their  presumptious  thoughts  to  the  height  of 
controlling  their  sovereign  ;  and,  even  in  circumstances 
which  to  his  own  judgment  might  seem  to  confer  much 
less  discretionary  power  over  the  rights  of  prisoners, 
he  had  been  suspected  of  directing  the  course  of  law 
and  of  punishment  into  channels  that  would  not  brook 
the  public  knowledge.  Darker  dealings  were  imputed 
to  him  in  the  popular  opinion.  Gloomy  suspicions 


KLOSTERHEIM.  103 

were  muttered  at  the  fireside,  which  no  man  dared 
openly  to  avow  ;  and  in  the  present  instance  the  con 
duct  of  the  Landgrave  was  every  way  fitted  to  fall  in 
with  the  worst  of  the  public  fears.  At  one  time  he 
talked  of  bringing  his  prisoners  to  a  trial  ;  at  another, 
he  countermanded  tin-  preparations  which  he  had  made 
with  that  view.  Sometimes  he  spoke  of  banishing 
them  in  a  body  ;  and  again  he  avowed  his  intention  to 
deal  with  their  crime  as  treason.  The  result  of  this 
moody  and  capricious  tyranny  was  to  inspire  the  most 
vague  and  gloomy  apprehensions  into  the  minds  of  the 
prisoners,  and  to  keep  their  friends,  with  the  whole  city 
of  Klosterheim,  in  a  feverish  state  of  insecurity. 

This  state  of  things  lasted  for  nearly  three  weeks  ; 
but  at  length  a  morning  of  unexpected  pleasure  dawned 
upon  the  city.  The  prisoners  were  in  one  night  all 
released.  In  half  an  hour  the  news  ran  over  the  town 
and  the  university  ;  multitudes  hastened  to  the  college, 
anxious  to  congratulate  the  prisoners  on  their  deliver 
ance  from  the  double  afflictions  of  a  dungeon  and  of 
continual  insecurity.  Mere  curiosity  also  prompted 
some,  who  took  but  little  interest  in  the  prisoners  or 
their  cause,  to  inquire  into  the  circumstances  of  so  ab 
rupt  and  unexpected  an  act  of  grace.  One  principal 
court  in  the  college  was  filled  with  those  who  had 
come  upon  this  errand  of  friendly  interest  or  curiosity. 
Nothing  was  to  be  seen  but  earnest  and  delighted  faces, 
offering  or  acknowledging  congratulation  ;  nothing  to 


104 


KLOSTERHE1M. 


be  heard  but  tbe  language  of  joy  and  pleasure  — 
friendly  or  affectionate,  according  to  the  sex  or  relation 
of  the  speaker.  Some  were  talking  of  procuring  pass 
ports  for  leaving  the  town  —  some  anticipating  that 
this  course  would  not  be  left  to  their  own  choice,  but 
imposed,  as  the  price  of  his  clemency,  by  the  Land 
grave  ;  — all,  in  short,  was  hubbub  and  joyous  uproar, 
when  suddenly  a  file  of  the  city  guard,  commanded  by 
an  officer,  made  their  way  rudely  and  violently  through 
the  crowd,  advancing  evidently  to  the  spot  where  the 
liberated  prisoners  were  collected  in  a  group.  At  that 
moment  the  Count  St.  Aldenheim  was  offering  his 
congratulations.  The  friends  to  whom  he  spoke,  were 
too  confident  in  his  honor  and  integrity  to  have  felt 
even  one  moment's  misgiving  upon  the  true  causes 
which  had  sheltered  him  from  the  Landgrave's  wrath, 
and  had  thus  given  him  a  privilege  so  invidious  in  the 
eyes  of  those  who  knew  him  not,  and  on  that  account 
so  hateful  in  his  own.  They  knew  his  unimpeachable 
fidelity  to  the  cause  and  themselves,  and  were  anx 
iously  expressing  their  sense  of  it  by  the  warmth  of 
their  salutations  at  the  very  moment  when  the  city 
guard  appeared.  The  Count,  on  his  part,  was  gaily 
reminding  them  to  come  that  evening  and  fulfil  their 
engagement  to  drink  his  aunt  of  jovial  memory  in  her 
own  Johannisberg,  when  the  guard,  shouldering  aside 
the  crowd,  advanced,  and,  surrounding  the  group  of 
students,  in  an  instant  laid  the  hands  of  summary 


KLOSTERIIKIM.  105 

arrest  each  upon  the  gentleman  who  stood  next  him. 
The  petty  officer  who  commanded,  made  a  grasp  at 
one   of  the   most   distinguished   in   dress,   and   seized 
rudely  upon  the  gold  chain  depending  from  his  neck. 
St.  Aldenheim,  who  happened  at  the  moment  to  be  in 
conversation  with  this  individual,  stung  with  a  sudden 
indignation  at  the  ruffian  eagerness  of  the  men  in  thus 
abusing  the  privileges  of  their  office,  and  unable  to 
control   the    generous    ardor  of   his    nature,   met  this 
brutal  outrage  with  a  sudden  blow  at  the  officer's  face, 
levelled  with  so  true  an  aim,  that  it  stretched  him  at 
his  length  upon  the  ground.     No  terrors  of  impending 
vengeance,  had  they  been  a  thousand  times  stronger 
than  they  were,  could  at  this  moment  have  availed  to 
stifle  the  cry  of  triumphant  pleasure  —  long,  loud,  and 
unfaltering  —  which     indignant    sympathy    with     the 
oppressed  extorted   from   the   crowd.     The   pain  and 
humiliation   of  the    blow,   exalted    into   a   maddening 
intensity  by  this  popular  shout  of  exultation,  quickened 
the  officer's  rage  into  an  apparent  frenzy.    With  white 
lips,  and  half  suffocated  with  the  sudden  revulsion  of 
passion,  natural  enough  to  one  who  had  never  before 
encountered  even  a  momentary  overture  at  opposition 
to  the  authority  with  which  he  was  armed,  and  for  the 
first  time  in  his  life  found  his  own  brutalities  thrown 
back  resolutely  in  his  teeth,  the  man  rose,  and  by  signs 
rather  than  the  inarticulate  sounds   which  he    meant 
for   words,  pointed  the  violence  of  his  party  upon  the 


106  KLOSTERHEI3I. 

Count  St.  Aldenheim.  With  halberds  bristling  around 
him,  the  gallant  young  nobleman  was  loudly  sum 
moned  to  surrender ;  but  he  protested  indignantly, 
drawing  his  sword,  and  placing  himself  in  an  attitude 
of  defence,  that  he  would  die  a  thousand  deaths  sooner 
than  surrender  the  sword  of  his  father,  the  Palsgrave, 
a  Prince  of  the  Empire,  of  unspotted  honor,  and  most 
ancient  descent,  into  the  hands  of  a  jailer. 

"  Jailer  ! "   exclaimed   the    officer,  almost    howling 
with  passion. 

"  Why,  then,  captain  of  jailers,  lieutenant,  anspes- 
sade,  or  what  you  will.  What  else  than  a  jailer  is  he, 
that  sits  watch  upon  the  prison-doors  of  honorable 
cavaliers  ?  "  Another  shout  of  triumph  applauded  St. 
Aldenheim  ;  for  the  men  who  discharged  the  duties  of 
the  city  guard  at  that  day,  or  "  petty  guard,"  as  it  was 
termed,  corresponding  in  many  of  their  functions  to 
the  modern  police,  were  viewed  with  contempt  by  all 
parties;  and  most  of  all  by  the  military,  though  in 
some  respects  assimilated  to  them  by  discipline  and 
costume.  They  were  industriously  stigmatized  as 
jailers  ;  for  which  there  was  the  more  ground,  as  their 
duties  did  in  reality  associate  them  pretty  often  with 
the  jailer ;  and  in  other  respects  they  were  a  dissolute 
and  ferocious  body  of  men,  gathered  not  out  of  the 
citizens,  but  many  foreign  deserters,  or  wretched  run 
agates  from  the  jail,  or  from  the  justice  of  the  Provost 
Marshal  in  some  distant  camp.  Not  a  man,  probably, 


KLOSTERHE13I.  107 

but  was  liable  to  be  reclaimed  in  some  or  other  quarter 
of  Germany  as  a  capital  delinquent.  Sometimes, 
even,  they  were  actually  detected,  claimed,  and  given 
up  to  the  pursuit  of  justice,  when  it  happened  that  the 
subjects  of  their  criminal  acts  were  weighty  enough  to 
sustain  an  energetic  inquiry.  Hence  their  reputation 
became  worse  than  scandalous  ;  the  mingled  infamy 
of  their  calling,  and  the  houseless  condition  of  wretch 
edness  which  had  made  it  worth  their  acceptance, 
combined  to  overwhelm  them  with  public  scorn  ;  and 
this  public  abhorrence,  which  at  any  rate  awaited 
them,  mere  desperation  led  them  too  often  to  counte 
nance  and  justify  by  their  conduct. 

"  Captain  of  jailers  !  do  your  worst,  I  say,"  again 
ejaculated  St.  Aldenheim.  Spite  of  his  blinding  pas 
sion,  the  officer  hesitated  to  precipitate  himself  into  a 
personal  struggle  with  the  Count,  and  thus  perhaps 
afford  his  antagonist  an  occasion  for  a  further  triumph. 
But  loudly  and  fiercely  he  urged  on  his  followers  to 
attack  him.  These  again,  not  partaking  in  the  per 
sonal  wrath  of  their  leader,  even  whilst  pressing  more 
and  more  closely  upon  St.  Aldenheim,  and  calling 
upon  him  to  surrender,  scrupled  to  inflict  a  wound, 
or  too  marked  an  outrage,  upon  a  cavalier  whose 
rank  was  known  to  the  whole  city,  and  of  late  most 
advantageously  known  for  his  own  interests,  by  the 
conspicuous  immunity  which  it  had  procured  him 
from  the  Landgrave.  In  vain  did  the  commanding 


108  KLOSTERHEIM. 

officer  insist,  in  vain  did  the  Count  defy,  —  menaces 
from  neither  side  availed  to  urge  the  guard  into  any 
outrage  upon  the  person  of  one  who  might  have  it  in 
his  power  to  retaliate  so  severely  upon  themselves. 
They  continued  obstinately  at  a  stand,  simply  prevent 
ing  his  escape,  when  suddenly  the  tread  of  horses'  feet 
arose  upon  the  ear,  and  through  a  long  vista  were  dis 
covered  a  body  of  cavalry  from  the  castle  coming  up 
at  a  charging  pace  to  the  main  entrance  of  the  college. 
Without  pulling  up  on  the  outside,  as  hitherto  they  had 
always  done,  they  expressed  sufficiently  the  altered 
tone  of  the  Landgrave's  feelings  towards  the  old  char 
tered  interests  of  Klosterheim,  by  plunging  through 
the  great  archway  of  the  college-gates  ;  and  then 
making  way  at  the  same  furious  pace  through  the 
assembled  crowds,  who  broke  rapidly  away  to  the 
right  and  to  the  left,  they  reined  up  directly  abreast  of 
the  city  guard  and  their  prisoners. 

"  Colonel  Von  Aremberg  !  "  said  St.  Aldenheim, 
"  I  perceive  your  errand.  To  a  soldier  I  surrender 
myself;  to  this  tyrant  of  dungeons,  who  has  betrayed 
more  men,  and  cheated  more  gibbets  of  their  due  than 
ever  he  said  aves,  1  will  never  lend  an  ear,  though  he 
should  bear  the  orders  of  every  Landgrave  in  Ger 
many." 

"  You  do  well,"  replied  the  Colonel  ;  "  but  for  this 
man,  Count,  he  bears  no  orders  from  any  Landgrave, 
nor  will  ever  again  bear  orders  from  the  Landgrave  of 


KLOSTERHKIM.  109 

X .      ( lentlemeii,  you   arc   all    my   prisoners;  and 

you  will  accompany  mo  to  the  castle.  Count  St. 
Al  den  helm,  I  am  sorry  that  there  is  no  longer  an  ex 
emption  for  yourself.  Please  to  advance.  If  it  will 
be  any  gratification  to  you,  these  men"  (pointing  to 
the  city  guard)  u  arc  prisoners  also." 

Here  was  a  revolution  of  fortune  that  confounded 
everybody.  The  detested  guardians  of  the  city  jail 
were  themselves  to  tenant  it  ;  or,  by  a  worse  fate  still, 
were  to  be  consigned  unpitied,  and  their  case  unjudged, 
to  the  dark  and  pestilent  dungeons  which  lay  below  the 
Landgrave's  castle.  A  few  scattered  cries  of  triumph 
were  heard  from  the  crowd  ;  but  they  were  drowned 
in  a  tumult  of  conflicting  feelings.  As  human  creatures, 
fallen  under  the  displeasure  of  a  despot  with  a  judicial 
power  of  torture  to  enforce  his  investigations,  even 
they  claimed  some  compassion.  But  there  arose,  to 
call  off  attention  from  these  less  dignified  objects  of 
the  public  interest,  a  long  train  of  gallant  cavaliers, 
restored  so  capriciously  to  liberty,  in  order,  as  it 
seemed,  to  give  the  greater  poignancy  and  bitterness 
to  the  instant  renewal  of  their  captivity.  This  was 
the  very  frenzy  of  despotism  in  its  very  moodiest  state 
of  excitement.  Many  began  to  think  the  Landgrave 
mad.  If  so,  what  a  dreadful  fate  might  be  anticipated 
for  the  sons  or  representatives  of  so  many  noble 
families,  gallant  soldiers  the  greater  part  of  them,  with 


110  KLOSTERHEIM. 

a  nobleman  of  princely  blood  at  their  head,  lying 
under  the  displeasure  of  a  gloomy  and  infuriated 
tyrant,  with  unlimited  means  of  executing  the  bloodiest 
suggestions  of  his  vengeance.  Then,  in  what  way 
had  the  guardians  of  the  jails  come  to  be  connected 
with  any  even  imaginary  offence  ?  Supposing  the 
Landgrave  insane,  his  agents  were  not  so  ;  Colonel 
Von  Aremberg  was  a  man  of  shrewd  and  penetrating 
understanding ;  and  this  officer  had  clearly  spoken 
in  the  tone  of  one,  who,  whilst  announcing  the  sen 
tence  of  another,  sympathizes  entirely  with  the  justice 
and  necessity  of  its  harshness. 

Something  dropped  from  the  miserable  leader  of 
the  city  guard,  in  his  first  confusion  and  attempt  at 
self-defence,  which  rather  increased  than  explained  the 
mystery.  "  The  Masque  !  the  Masque  !  "  This  was 
the  word  which  fell  at  intervals  upon  the  ear  of  the 
listening  crowd,  as  he  sometimes  directed  his  words  in 
the  way  of  apology  and  deprecation  to  Colonel  Von 
Aremberg,  who  did  not  vouchsafe  to  listen,  or  of  occa 
sional  explanation  and  discussion,  as  it  was  partially 
kept  up  between  himself  and  one  of  his  nearest  part 
ners  in  the  imputed  transgression.  Two  or  three  there 
might  be  seen  in  the  crowd,  whose  looks  avowed  some 
nearer  acquaintance  with  this  mysterious  allusion  than 
it  would  have  been  safe  to  acknowledge.  But,  for  the 
great  body  of  spectators  who  accompanied  the  prison- 


KLOSTKRIIF.IM.  Ill 


ers 


and  their  escort  to  the  gates  of  the  castle,  it  was 
pretty  evident  hy  tlicir  inquiring  looks,  and  the  lived 
expression  of  wonder  upon  their  features,  that  the 
whole  affair,  and  its  circumstances,  were  to  them 
equally  a  subject  of  mystery  for  what  was  past,  and  of 
blind  terror  for  what  was  to  come. 


112 


KLOSTERHEIIM. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  cavalcade,  with  its  charge  of  prisoners,  and  its 
attendant  train  of  spectators,  halted  at  the  gates  of  the 
schloss.  This  vast  and  antique  pile  had  now  come  to 
be  surveyed  with  dismal  and  revolting  feelings,  as  the 
abode  of  a  sanguinary  despot.  The  dungeons  and 
labyrinths  of  its  tortuous  passages,  its  gloomy  halls  of 
audience,  with  the  vast  corrridors  which  surmounted 
the  innumerable  flights  of  stairs  —  some  noble,  spa 
cious,  and  in  the  Venetian  taste,  capable  of  admitting 
the  march  of  an  army  —  some  spiral,  steep,  and  so 
unusually  narrow  as  to  exclude  two  persons  walking 
abreast ;  these,  together  with  the  numerous  chapels 
erected  in  it  to  different  saints  by  devotees,  male  or 
female,  in  the  families  of  forgotten  Landgraves  through 
four  centuries  back ;  and  finally  the  tribunals,  or  gericht- 
kammern,  for  dispensing  justice,  criminal  or  civil,  to 
the  city  and  territorial  dependencies  of  Klosterheim  ; 
—  all  united  to  compose  a  body  of  impressive  images, 
hallowed  by  great  historical  remembrances,  or  tradi 
tional  stories,  that  from  infancy  to  age  dwelt  upon  the 
feelings  of  the  Klosterheimers.  Terror  and  supersti- 


KLOSTKRHKI.M.  113 

tious  dread  predominated  undoubtedly  in  tlie  total  im- 
pivssion  ;  but  tbe  gentle  virtues  exhibited  by  a  scries 
of  princes,  who  had  made  this  their  favorite  residence, 
naturally  enough  terminated  in  mellowing  the  stern 
ness  of  such  associations  into  a  religious  awe,  not 
without  its  own  peculiar  attractions.  But  at  present, 
under  the  harsh  and  repulsive  character  of  the  reigning 
prince,  everything  took  a  new  color  from  his  ungenial 
habits.  The  superstitious  legends,  which  had  so  imme 
morial  ly  peopled  the  schloss  with  spectral  apparitions, 
now  revived  in  its  earliest  strength.  Never  was  Ger 
many  more  dedicated  to  superstition  in  every  shape 
than  at  this  period.  The  wild  tumultuous  times,  and 
the  slight  tenure  upon  which  all  men  held  their  lives, 
naturally  threw  their  thoughts  much  upon  the  other 
world  ;  and  communications  with  that,  or  its  burthen  of 
secrets,  by  every  variety  of  agencies,  ghosts,  divina 
tion,  natural  magic,  palmistry,  or  astrology,  found  in 
every  city  of  the  land  more  encouragement  than  ever. 
It  cannot,  therefore,  be  surprising  that  the  well- 
known  apparition  of  the  White  Lady  (a  legend  which 
affected  Klosterheim  through  the  fortunes  of  its  Land 
graves,  no  less  than  several  other  princely  houses  of 
Germany,  descended  from  the  same  original  stock), 
should  about  this  time  have  been  seen  in  the  dusk  of 
the  evening  at  some  of  the  upper  windows  in  the 
castle,  and  once  in  a  lofty  gallery  of  the  great  chapel 
during  the  vesper  service.  This  lady,  generally  known 
8 


114  KLOSTERHEIM. 

by  the  name  of  the  White  Lady  Agnes,  or  Lady  Agnes 
of  Weissemburg,  is  supposed  to  have  lived  in  the  13th 
or  14th  century,  and  from  that  time,  even  to  our  own 
days,  the  current  belief  is,  that  on  the  eve  of  any  great 
crisis  of  good  or  evil  fortune  impending  over  the  three 
or  four  illustrious  houses  of  Germany  which  trace  their 
origin  from  her,  she  makes  her  appearance  in  some 
conspicuous  apartment,  great  baronial  hall  or  chapel, 
of  their  several  palaces,  sweeping  along  in  white  robes 
and  a  voluminous  train.  Her  appearance  of  late  in 
the  scliloss  of  Klosterheim,  confidently  believed  by  the 
great  body  of  the  people,  was  hailed  with  secret  pleas 
ure,  as  forerunning  some  great  change  in  the  Land 
grave's  family,  —  which  was  but  another  name  for 
better  days  to  themselves,  whilst  of  necessity  it  me 
naced  some  great  evil  to  the  prince  himself.  Hope, 
therefore,  was  predominant  in  their  prospects,  and  in 
the  supernatural  intimations  of  coming  changes;  — 
yet  awe  and  deep  religious  feeling  mingled  with  their 
hope.  Of  chastisement  approaching  to  the  Landgrave 
they  felt  assured,  —  some  dim  religious  judgment  like 
that  which  brooded  over  the  house  of  (Edipus,  was 
now  at  hand,  —  that  was  the  universal  impression. 
His  gloomy  asceticism  of  life  seemed  to  argue  secret 
crimes,  —  these  were  to  be  brought  to  light ;  —  for 
these,  and  for  his  recent  tyranny,  prosperous  as  it  had 
seemed  for  a  moment,  chastisements  were  now  im 
pending  ;  and  something  of  the  awe  which  belonged  to 


KLOSTERIIKIM.  115 

a  prince  so  marked  out  for  doom  and  fatal  catastrophe, 
seemed  to  attach  itself  to  his  mansion,  —  more  espe 
cially,  as  it  was  there  only  that  the  signs  and  portents 
of  the  coming  woe  had  revealed  themselves  in  the 
apparition  of  the  White  Lady. 

Under  this  superstitious  impression,  many  of  the 
spectators  paused  at  the  entrance  of  the  castle,  and 
lingered  in  the  portal,  though  presuming  that  the 
chamber  of  justice,  according  to  the  frank  old  usage  of 
Germany,  was  still  open  to  all  comers.  Of  this  notion 
they  were  speedily  disabused  by  the  sudden  retreat  of 
the  few  who  had  penetrated  into  the  first  antechamber. 
These  persons  were  harshly  repelled  in  a  contumelious 
manner,  and  read  to  the  astonished  citizens  another 
lesson  upon  the  new  arts  of  darkness  and  concealment, 
with  which  the  Landgrave  found  it  necessary  to  ac 
company  his  new  acts  of  tyranny. 

Von  Aremberg  and  his  prisoners,  thus  left  alone  in 
one  of  the  antechambers,  waited  no  long  time  before 
they  were  summoned  to  the  presence  of  the  Land 
grave. 

After  pacing  along  a  number  of  corridors,  all  car 
peted  so  as  to  return  no  sound  to  their  footsteps,  they 
arrived  in  a  little  hall,  from  which  a  door  suddenly 
opened,  upon  a  noiseless  signal  exchanged  with  an 
usher  outside,  and  displayed  before  them  a  long  gal 
lery,  with  a  table  and  a  few  seats  arranged  at  the  fur- 


116  KLOSTERIIEIM. 

ther  end.  Two  gentlemen  were  seated  at  the  table, 
anxiously  examining  papers  ;  in  one  of  whom  it  was 
easy  to  recognize  the  wily  glance  of  the  Italian  minis 
ter,  the  other  was  the  Landgrave. 

This  prince  was  now  on  the  verge  of  fifty,  strikingly 
handsome  in  his  features,  and  of  imposing  presence, 
from  the  union  of  a  fine  person  with  manners  unusu 
ally  dignified.  No  man  understood  better  the  art  of 
restraining  his  least  governable  impulses  of  anger  or 
malignity  within  the  decorums  of  his  rank.  And  even 
his  worst  passions,  throwing  a  gloomy,  rather  than 
terrific  air  upon  his  features,  served  less  to  alarm  and 
revolt,  than  to  impress  the  sense  of  secret  distrust.  Of 
late  indeed,  from  the  too  evident  indications  of  the 
public  hatred,  his  sallies  of  passion  had  become  wilder 
and  more  ferocious,  and  his  self-command  less  habitu 
ally  conspicuous.  But  in  general,  a  gravity  of  insidu- 
ous  courtesy  disguised  from  all  but  penetrating  eyes 
the  treacherous  purpose  of  his  heart. 

The  Landgrave  bowed  to  the  Count  St.  Aldenheim  ; 
and,  pointing  to  a  chair,  begged  him  to  understand  that 
he  wished  to  do  nothing  inconsistent  with  his  regard 
for  the  Palsgrave  his  brother  ;  and  would  be  content 
with  his  parole  of  honor  to  pursue  no  further  any  con 
spiracy  against  himself,  in  which  he  might  too  thought 
lessly  have  engaged,  and  with  his  retirement  from  the 
city  of  Klosterhcim. 

The  Count  St  Aldenheim  replied,  that  he  and  all  the 


KLOSTKUHEIM.  117 

otlior  cavaliers  present,  according  to  his  belief,  stood 
upon  the  same  footing  :  that  they  had  harbored  no 
thought  of  conspiracy,  unless  that  name  could  attach 
to  a  purpose  of  open  expostulation  with  his  Highness 
on  the  outraged  privileges  of  their  corporation  as  a 
university  :  that  he  wished  not  for  any  distinction  of 
treatment  in  a  case  when  all  were  equal  offenders,  or 
none  at  all  :  and  finally,  that  he  believed  the  sentence 
of  exile  from  Klosterheim  would  be  cheerfully  accepted 
by  all,  or  most  of  those  present. 

Adorni,  the  minister,  shook  his  head,  and  glanced 
significantly  at  the  Landgrave  during  this  answer. 
The  Landgrave  coldly  replied,  that  if  he  could  suppose 
the  Count  to  speak  sincerely,  it  was  evident  that  he 
was  little  aware  to  what  length  his  companions,  or  some 
of  them,  had  pushed  their  plots.  "  Here  are  the 
proofs  !  "  and  he  pointed  to  the  papers. 

"  And  now,  gentlemen,"  said  he,  turning  to  the 
students,  "  I  marvel  that  you,  being  cavaliers  of  family, 
and  doubtless  holding  yourselves  men  of  honor,  should 
beguile  these  poor  knaves  into  certain  ruin,  whilst 
yourselves  could  reap  nothing  but  a  brief  mockery  of 
the  authority  which  you  could  not  hope  to  evade." 

Thus  called  upon,  the  students  and  the  city-guard 
told  their  tale,  in  which  no  contradictions  could  be 
detected.  The  city  prison  was  not  particularly  well 
secured  against  attacks  from  without.  To  prevent, 
therefore,  any  sudden  attempt  at  a  rescue,  the  guard 


118  KLOSTERHEIM. 

kept  watch  by  turns.  One  man  watched  two  hours, 
traversing  the  different  passages  of  the  prison  ;  and 
was  then  relieved.  At  three  o'clock  on  the  preceding 
night,  pacing  a  winding  lobby,  brightly  illuminated, 
the  man  who  kept  that  watch  was  suddenly  met  by  a 
person  wearing  a  masque,  and  armed  at  all  points. 
His  surprise  and  consternation  were  great,  and  the  more 
so  as  the  steps  of  The  Masque  were  soundless,  though 
the  floor  was  a  stone  one.  The  guard,  but  slightly 
prepared  to  meet  an  attack,  would,  however,  have  re 
sisted  or  raised  an  alarm  ;  but  The  Masque  instantly 
levelling  a  pistol  at  his  head  with  one  hand,  with  the 
other  had  thrown  open  the  door  of  an  empty  cell,  indi 
cating  to  the  man  by  signs  that  he  must  enter  it.  With 
this  intimation  he  had  necessarily  complied  ;  and  The 
Masque  had  immediately  turned  the  key  upon  him. 
Of  what  followed  he  knew  nothing,  until  aroused  by 
his  comrades  setting  him  at  liberty,  after  some  time 
had  been  wasted  in  searching  for  him. 

The  students  had  a  pretty  uniform  tale  to  report.  A 
Masque,  armed  cap-a-pie  as  described  by  the  guard, 
had  visited  each  of  their  cells  in  succession  ;  had  in 
structed  them  by  signs  to  dress  ;  and  then,  pointing  to 
the  door,  by  a  series  of  directions  all  communicated  in 
the  same  dumb  show,  had  assembled  them  together, 
thrown  open  the  prison  door,  and,  pointing  to  their 
college,  had  motioned  them  thither.  This  motion  they 
had  seen  no  cause  to  disobey,  presuming  their  dismis- 


KLOSTERIIF.nr.  119 

sal  to  be  according  to  the  mode  which  best  pleased  his 
Highness  ;  and  not  ill-pleased  at  finding  so  peaceful  a 
termination  to  a  summons  which  at  first,  from  its  mys 
terious  shape  and  the  solemn  hour  of  night,  they  had 
understood  as  tending  to  some  more  formidable  issue. 

It  was  observed  that  neither  the  Landgrave  nor  his 
minister  treated  this  report  of  so  strange  a  transaction 
with  the  scorn  which  had  been  anticipated.  Both 
listened  attentively,  and  made  minute  inquiries  as  to 
every  circumstance  of  the  dress  and  appointments  of 
the  mysterious  Masque.  What  was  his  height  ?  By 
what  road,  or  in  what  direction  had  he  disappeared  ? 
These  questions  answered,  his  Highness  and  his  minis 
ter  consulted  a  few  minutes  together  ;  and  then,  turn 
ing  to  Von  Aremberg,  bade  him  for  the  present  dismiss 
the  prisoners  to  their  homes,  an  act  of  grace  which 
seemed  likely  to  do  him  service  at  the  present  crisis  ; 
but  at  the  same  time  to  take  sufficient  security  for  their 
reappearance.  This  done,  the  whole  body  were  liber 
ated. 


120  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER   X. 

ALL  Klosterheim  was  confounded  by  the  story  of 
the  mysterious  Masque.  For  the  story  had  been 
rapidly  dispersed  ;  and  on  the  same  day  it  was  made 
known  in  another  shape.  A  notice  was  affixed  to  the 
walls  of  several  public  places  in  these  words :  — 

"  Landgrave,  beware  !  henceforth  not  you,  but  I, 
govern  in  Klosterheim. 

(Signed)  "  THE  MASQUE." 

And  this  was  no  empty  threat.  Very  soon  it  became 
apparent  that  some  mysterious  agency  was  really  at 
work  to  counteract  the  Landgrave's  designs.  Senti 
nels  were  carried  off  from  solitary  posts.  Guards  even 
of  a  dozen  men  were  silently  trepanned  from  their 
stations.  By  and  by,  other  attacks  were  made,  even 
more  alarming,  upon  domestic  security.  Was  there  a 
burgomaster  amongst  the  citizens,  who  had  made  him 
self  conspicuously  a  tool  of  the  Landgrave,  or  had 
opposed  the  Imperial  interest  ?  He  was  carried  off  in 


KLOSTERIIKHf.  121 

the  night-time  from  his  house,  and  probably  from  the 
city.  At  first  this  was  an  easy  task.  Nobody  apprehend 
ing  any  special  danger  to  himself,  no  special  prepara 
tions  were  made  to  meet  it.  But,  as  it  soon  became 
apparent  in  what  cause  The  Masque  was  moving, 
every  person  who  knew  himself  obnoxious  to  attack, 
took  means  to  face  it.  Guards  were  multiplied  ;  arms 
were  repaired  in  every  house  ;  alarm  bells  were  hung. 
For  a  time  the  danger  seemed  to  diminish.  The  at 
tacks  were  no  longer  so  frequent.  Still,  wherever  they 
were  attempted,  they  succeeded  just  as  before.  It  seem 
ed,  in  fact,  that  all  the  precautions  taken  had  no  other 
effect  than  to  warn  The  Masque  of  his  own  danger, 
and  to  place  him  more  vigilantly  on  his  guard.  Aware 
of  new  defences  raising,  it  seemed  that  he  waited  to 
see  the  course  they  would  take ;  once  master  of  that, 
he  was  ready  (as  it  appeared)  to  contend  with  them  as 
successfully  as  before. 

Nothing  could  exceed  the  consternation  of  the  city. 
Those  even,  who  did  not  fall  within  the  apparent  rule 
which  governed  the  attacks  of  The  Masque,  felt  a 
sense  of  indefinite  terror  hanging  over  them.  Sleep 
was  no  longer  safe  ;  tbe  seclusion  of  a  man's  private 
hearth,  the  secrecy  of  bedrooms,  was  no  longer  a  pro 
tection.  Locks  gave  way,  bars  fell,  doors  flew  open, 
as  if  by  magic,  before  him.  Arms  seemed  useless. 
In  some  instances  a  party  of  as  many  as  ten  or  a 
dozen  persons  had  been  removed  without  rousing  dis- 


122  KLOSTERHEIM. 

turbance  in  the  neighborhood.  Nor  was  this  the  only 
circumstance  of  mystery.  Whither  he  could  remove 
his  victims,  was  even  more  incomprehensible  than  the 
means  by  which  he  succeeded.  All  was  darkness  and 
fear  ;  and  the  whole  city  was  agitated  with  panic. 

It  began  now  to  be  suggested  that  a  nightly  guard 
should  be  established,  having  fixed  stations  or  points  of 
rendezvous,  and  at  intervals  parading  the  streets.  This 
was  cheerfully  assented  to ;  for  after  the  first  week  of 
the  mysterious  attacks,  it  began  to  be  observed  that 
the  Imperial  party  were  attacked  indiscriminately  with 
the  Swedish.  Many  students  publicly  declared  that 
they  had  been  dogged  through  a  street  or  two  by  an 
armed  Masque  ;  others  had  been  suddenly  confronted 
by  him  in  unfrequented  parts  of  the  city  in  the  dead  of 
night,  and  were  on  the  point  of  being  attacked,  when 
some  alarm,  or  the  approach  of  distant  footsteps,  had 
caused  him  to  disappear.  The  students,  indeed,  more 
particularly,  seemed  objects  of  attack  ;  and,  as  they 
were  pretty  generally  attached  to  the  Imperial  interest, 
the  motives  of  The  Masque  were  no  longer  judged  to 
be  political.  Hence  it  happened  that  the  students  came 
forward  in  a  body,  and  volunteered  as  members  of  the 
nightly  guard.  Being  young,  military  for  the  most 
part  in  their  habits,  and  trained  to  support  the  hard 
ships  of  night-watching,  they  seemed  peculiarly  fitted 
for  the  service  ;  and,  as  the  case  was  no  longer  of  a 
nature  to  awaken  the  suspicions  of  the  Landgrave, 


KLOSTERHE1M.  123 

they  wen*  generally  accepted  and  enrolled  ;  and  with 
the  more  readiness,  as  the  known  friends  of  that  prince 
came  forward  at  the  same  time. 

A  night-watch  was  thus  established,  which  promised 
security  to  the  city,  and  a  respite  from  their  mysterious 
alarms.  It  was  distributed  into  eight  or  ten  divisions, 
posted  at  different  points,  whilst  a  central  one  traversed 
the  whole  city  at  stated  periods,  and  overlooked  the 
local  stations.  Such  an  arrangement  was  wholly  un 
known  at  that  time  in  every  part  of  Germany,  and  was 
hailed  with  general  applause. 

To  the  astonishment,  however,  of  everybody,  it 
proved  wholly  ineffectual.  Houses  were  entered  as 
before  ;  the  college  chambers  proved  no  sanctuary  ; 
indeed,  they  were  attacked  with  a  peculiar  obstinacy, 
which  was  understood  to  express  a  spirit  of  retaliation 
for  the  alacrity  of  the  students  in  combining  for  the 
public  protection.  People  were  carried  off  as  before. 
And  continual  notices  affixed  to  the  gates  of  the  col 
lege,  the  convents,  or  the  schloss,  with  the  signature  of 
The  Masque,  announced  to  the  public  his  determination 
to  persist,  and  his  contempt  of  the  measures  organized 
against  him. 

The  alarm  of  the  citizens  now  became  greater  than 
ever.  The  danger  was  one  which  courage  could  not 
face,  nor  prudence  make  provision  for,  nor  wiliness 
evade.  All  alike,  who  had  once  been  marked  out  for 
attack,  sooner  or  later  fell  victims  to  the  obstinacy  of 


124  KLOSTERHEIM. 

this  mysterious  foe.     To  have  received   even  an  indi 
vidual  warning,  availed  them  not  at  all.     Sometimes  it 
happened,  that,  having  received   notice  of  suspicious 
circumstances  indicating  that  The  Masque  had  turned 
his  attention  upon  themselves,  they  would   assemble 
round  their  dwellings,  or  in  their  very  chambers,  a  band 
of  armed  men  sufficient  to  set  the  danger  at  defiance. 
But   no   sooner  had   they  relaxed   in  these  costly  and 
troublesome  arrangements,  no  sooner  was  the  sense  of 
peril  lulled,  and  an  opening  made  for  their  unrelenting 
enemy,  than  he  glided  in  with  his  customary  success  ; 
and  in  a  morning  or  two   after,  it  was  announced   to 
the  city  that  they  also  were  numbered  with  his  victims. 
Even  yet  it  seemed  that  something  remained  in  re 
serve  to  augment  the  terrors  of  the  citizens,  and  push 
them  to  excess.     Hitherto  there  had  been  no  reason  to 
think  that  any  murderous  violence  had  occurred  in  the 
mysterious  rencontres  between  The  Masque  and   his 
victims.      But    of    late,   in    those    houses,    or   college 
chambers,  from  which  the  occupiers  had  disappeared, 
traces  of  bloodshed  were  apparent  in  some  instances, 
and  of  ferocious  conflict  in  others.     Sometimes  a  pro 
fusion  of  hair  was  scattered  on  the  ground  ;  sometimes 
fragments  of  dress,  or  splinters  of  weapons.     Every 
thing  marked  that  on   both   sides,  as  this   mysterious 
agency  advanced,  the  passions  increased  in  intensity  ; 
determination   and   murderous    malignity  on   the   one 
side,  and  the  fury  of  resistance  on  the  other. 


KL 


At  lengtli  the  last  consummation  was  given 
public  panic  ;  for,  as  if  expressly  to  put  an  end  to  all 
doubts  upon  the  spirit  in  which  ho  conducted  his  war 
fare,  in  one  house  where  the  bloodsh'ed  had  been  so 
great  as  to  argue  some  considerable  loss  of  life,  a 
notice  was  left  behind  in  the  following  terms  :  "  Thus 
it  is  that  I  punish  resistance  ;  mercy  to  a  cheerful 
submission  ;  but  henceforth  death  to  the  obstinate  !  — 
Tin:  MASU.UE." 

What  was  to  be  done  ?  Some  counselled  a  public 
deprecation  of  his  wrath,  addressed  to  The  Masque. 
But  this,  had  it  even  offered  any  chance  of  succeed 
ing,  seemed  too  abject  an  act  of  abasement  to  become 
a  large  city.  Under  any  circumstances,  it  was  too 
humiliating  a  confession,  that,  in  a  struggle  with  one 
man  (for  no  more  had  avowedly  appeared  upon  the 
SCCMIC),  they  were  left  defeated  and  at  his  mercy. 
A  second  party  counselled  a  treaty  ;  would  it  not  be 
possible  to  learn  the  ultimate  objects  of  The  Masque  ? 
and,  if  such  as  seemed  capable  of  being  entertained 
with  honor,  to  concede  to  him  his  demands,  in  ex 
change  for  security  to  the  city,  and  immunity  from 
future  molestation  ?  It  was  true  that  no  man  knew 
where  to  seek  him  :  personally  he  was  hidden  from 
their  reach  ;  bu.t  everybody  knew  how  to  find  him  :  he 
was  amongst  them  ;  in  their  very  centre  ;  and  what 
ever  thpy  might  address  to  him  in  a  public  notice, 
would  be  sure  of  speedily  reaching  his  eye. 


126  KLOSTERHEIM. 

After  some  deliberation,  a  summons  was  addressed 
to  The  Masque,  and  exposed  on  the  college  gates, 
demanding  of  him  a  declaration  of  his  purposes,  and 
the  price  which  he  expected  for  suspending  them. 
The  next  day  an  answer  appeared  in  the  same  situa 
tion,  avowing  the  intention  of  The  Masque  to  come 
forward  with  ample  explanation  of  his  motives  at  a 
proper  crisis,  till  which  "  more  blood  must  flow  in 
Klosterheim." 


KLOSTERHEIM.  127 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MEANTIME  the  Landgrave  was  himself  perplexed 
and  alarmed.  Hitherto  he  had  believed  himself  pos 
sessed  of  all  the  intrigues,  plots  or  conspiracies,  which 
threatened  his  influence  in  the  city.  Among  the  stu 
dents  and  among  the  citizens  he  had  many  spies,  who 
communicated  to  him  whatsoever  they  could  learn, 
which  was  sometimes  more  than  the  truth,  and  some 
times  a  good  deal  less.  But  now  he  was  met  by  a 
terrific  antagonist,  who  moved  in  darkness,  careless  of 
his  power,  inaccessible  to  his  threats,  and  apparently 
as  reckless  as  himself  of  the  quality  of  his  means. 

Adorni,  with  all  his  Venetian  subtlety,  was  now  as 
much  at  fault  as  everybody  else.  In  vain  had  they 
deliberated  together,  day  after  day,  upon  his  probable 
purposes  ;  in  vain  had  they  schemed  to  intercept  his 
person,  or  offered  high  rewards  for  tracing  his  retreats. 
Snares  had  been  laid  for  him  in  vain  ;  every  wile  had 
proved  abortive,  every  plot  had  been  counterplotted. 
And  both  involuntarily  confessed  that  they  had  now 
met  with  their  master. 


128  KLOSTERHEIM. 

Vexed  and  confounded,  fears  for  the  future  strug 
gling  with  mortification  for  the  past,  the  Landgrave 
was  sitting,  late  at  night,  in  the  long  gallery  where  he 
usually  held  his  councils.  He  was  reflecting  with 
anxiety  on  the  peculiarly  unpropitious  moment  at 
which  his  new  enemy  had  come  upon  the  stage  —  the 
very  crisis  of  the  struggle  between  the  Swedish  and 
Imperial  interest  in  Klosterheim,  which  would  ulti 
mately  determine  his  own  place  and  value  in  the  esti 
mate  of  his  new  allies.  He  was  not  of  a  character  to 
be  easily  duped  by  mystery.  Yet  he  could  not  but 
acknowledge  to  himself  that  there  was  something  cal 
culated  to  impress  awe,  and  the  sort  of  fear  which  is 
connected  with  the  supernatural,  in  the  sudden  appear 
ances,  and  vanishings  as  sudden,  of  The  Masque.  He 
came  no  one  could  guess  whence,  retreated  no  one 
could  guess  whither  ;  was  intercepted,  and  yet  eluded 
arrest ;  and  if  half  the  stories  in  circulation  could  be 
credited,  seemed  inaudible  in  his  steps,  at  pleasure  to 
make  himself  invisible  and  impalpable  to  the  very 
hands  stretched  out  to  detain  him.  Much  of  this,  no 
doubt,  was  wilful  exaggeration,  or  the  fictions  of  fears 
self-deluded.  But  enough  remained,  after  every  allow 
ance,  to  justify  an  extraordinary  interest  in  so  singular 
a  being  ;  and  the  Landgrave  could  not  avoid  wishing 
that  chance  might  oiler  an  opportunity  to  himself  of 
observing  him. 

Profound  silence  had  for  some  time  reigned  through- 


KLOSTKRHKIM.  ~ 

out  the  castle.  A  clock  which  stood  in  the  room, 
broke  it  for  a  moment  by  striking  the  quarters  ;  and, 
raising  his  eyes,  the  Landgrave  perceived  that  it  was 
past  two.  lie  rose  to  retire  for  the  night,  and  stood 
for  a  moment  musing  with  one  hand  resting  upon  the 
table.  A  momentary  feeling  of  awe  came  across  him, 
as  his  eyes  travelled  through  the  gloom  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  room,  on  the  sudden  thought  that  a  being 
so  mysterious,  and  capable  of  piercing  through  so 
many  impediments  to  the  interior  of  every  mansion  in 
Klosterheim,  was  doubtless  likely  enough  to  visit  the 
castle  ;  nay,  it  would  be  no  ways  improbable  that  he 
should  penetrate  to  this  very  room.  What  bars  had 
yet  been  found  sufficient  to  repel  him  ?  And  who 
could  pretend  to  calculate  the  hour  of  his  visit  ?  This 
night  even  might  be  the  time  which  he  would  select. 
Thinking  thus,  the  Landgrave  was  suddenly  aware  of 
a  dusky  figure  entering  the  room  by  a  door  at  the 
lower  end.  The  room  had  the  length  and  general 
proportions  of  a  gallery,  and  the  further  end  was  so 
remote  from  the  candles  which  stood  on  the  Land 
grave's  table,  that  the  deep  gloom  was  but  slightly 
penetrated  by  their  rays.  Light,  however,  there  was, 
sufficient  to  display  the  outline  of  a  figure  slowly  and 
inaudibly  advancing  up  the  room.  It  could  not  be 
said  that  the  figure  advanced  stealthily  ;  on  the  con 
trary,  its  motion,  carriage,  and  bearing,  were  in  the 
highest  degree  dignified  and  solemn.  But  the  feeling 
9 


130  KLOSTERHEIM. 

of  a  stealthy  purpose  was  suggested  by  the  perfect 
silence  of  its  tread.  The  motion  of  a  shadow  could 
not  be  more  noiseless.  And  this  circumstance  con 
firmed  the  Landgrave's  first  impression,  that  now  he 
was  on  the  point  of  accomplishing  his  recent  wish,  and 
meeting  that  mysterious  being  who  was  the  object  of 
so  much  awe,  and  the  author  of  so  far-spread  a  panic. 

He  was  right ;  it  was  indeed  The  Masque,  armed 
cap-a-pie  as  usual.  He  advanced  with  an  equable  and 
determined  step  in  the  direction  of  the  Landgrave. 
Whether  he  saw  his  Highness,  who  stood  a  little  in  the 
shade  of  a  large  cabinet,  could  not  be  known  ;  the 
Landgrave  doubted  not  that  he  did.  He  was  a  prince 
of  firm  nerves  by  constitution,  and  of  great  intrepidity, 
—  yet,  as  one  who  shared  in  the  superstitions  of  his 
age,  he  could  not  be  expected  entirely  to  suppress  an 
emotion  of  indefinite  apprehension  as  he  now  beheld 
the  solemn  approach  of  a  being,  who,  by  some  unac 
countable  means,  had  trepanned  so  many  different 
individuals  from  so  many  different  houses,  most  of 
them  prepared  for  self-defence,  and  fenced  in  by  the 
protection  of  stone  walls,  locks,  and  bars. 

The  Landgrave,  however,  lost  none  of  his  presence 
of  mind  ;  and  in  the  midst  of  his  discomposure,  as  his 
eye  fell  upon  the  habiliments  of  this  mysterious  person, 
and  the  arms  and  military  accoutrements  which  he 
bore,  naturally  his  thoughts  settled  upon  the  more 
earthly  means  of  annoyance  which  this  martial  appa- 


KLOSTERHEIM.  131 

rition  carried  about  him.  The  Landgrave  was  himself 
unarmed,  —  he  had  no  arms  even  within  reach,  —  nor 
was  it  possible  for  him  in  his  present  situation  very 
speedily  to  summon  assistance.  With  these  thoughts 
passing  rapidly  through  his  mind,  and  sensible  that,  in 
any  view  of  his  nature  and  powers,  the  being  now  in 
his  presence  was  a  very  formidable  antagonist,  the 
Landgrave  could  not  but  feel  relieved  from  a  burden 
of  anxious  tremors,  when  he  saw  The  Masque  suddenly 
turn  towards  a  door  which  opened  about  half  way  up 
the  room,  and  lead  into  a  picture-gallery  at  right  angles 
with  the  room  in  which  they  both  were. 

Into  the  picture-gallery  The  Masque  passed  at  the 
same  solemn  pace,  without  apparently  looking  at  the 
Landgrave.  This  movement  seemed  to  argue,  either 
that  he  purposely  declined  an  interview  with  the 
Prince,  and  that  might  argue  fear,  or  that  he  had  not 
been  aware  of  his  presence;  —  either  supposition,  as 
implying  something  of  human  infirmity,  seemed  in 
compatible  with  supernatural  faculties.  Partly  upon 
this  consideration,  and  partly  perhaps  because  he  sud 
denly  recollected  that  the  road  taken  by  The  Masque 
would  lead  him  directly  past  the  apartments  of  the  old 
seneschal,  where  assistance  might  be  summoned,  the 
Landgrave  found  his  spirits  at  this  moment  revive. 
The  consciousness  of  rank  and  birth  also  came  to  his 
aid,  and  that  sort  of  disdain  of  the  aggressor,  which 
possesses  every  man  —  brave  or  cowardly  alike  — 


132  KLOSTERHEIM. 

within  the  walls  of  his  own  dwelling  :  —  unarmed  as 
he  was,  he  determined  to  pursue,  and  perhaps  to 
speak. 

The  restraints  of  high  breeding,  and  the  ceremo 
nious  decorum  of  his  rank,  involuntarily  checked  the 
Landgrave  from  pursuing  with  a  hurried  pace.  He 
advanced  with  his  habitual  gravity  of  step,  so  that  The 
Masque  was  half  way  down  the  gallery  before  the 
Prince  entered  it.  This  gallery,  furnished  on  each 
side  with  pictures,  of  which  some  were  portraits,  was 
of  great  length.  The  Masque  and  the  Prince  continued 
to  advance,  preserving  a  pretty  equal  distance.  It  did 
not  appear  by  any  sign  or  gesture  that  The  Masque 
was  aware  of  the  Landgrave's  pursuit.  Suddenly, 
however,  he  paused  —  drew  his  sword  —  halted  ;  the 
Landgrave  also  halted  ;  then  turning  half  round,  and 
waving  with  his  hand  to  the  Prince  so  as  to  solicit  his 
attention,  slowly  The  Masque  elevated  the  point  of  his 
sword  to  the  level  of  a  picture  —  it  was  the  portrait  of 
a  young  cavalier  in  a  hunting  dress,  blooming  with 
youth  and  youthful  energy.  The  Landgrave  turned 
pale,  trembled,  and  was  ruefully  agitated.  The  Masque 
kept  his  sword  in  its  position  for  half  a  minute  ;  then 
dropping  it,  shook  his  head,  and  raised  his  hand  with 
a  peculiar  solemnity  of  expression.  The  Landgrave 
recovered  himself — his  features  swelled  with  passion 
—  he  quickened  his  step,  and  again  followed  in 
pursuit. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  133 

The  Masque,  however,  had  by  this  time  turned  out 
of  the  gallery  into  a  passage,  which,  after  a  single 
curve,  terminated  in  the  private  room  of  the  seneschal. 
Believing  that  his  ignorance  of  the  localities  was  thus 
leading  him  on  to  certain  capture,  the  Landgrave  pur 
sued  more  leisurely.  The  passage  was  dimly  lighted  ; 
every  image  floated  in  a  cloudy  obscurity  ;  and,  upon 
reaching  the  curve,  it  seemed  to  the  Landgrave  that 
The  Masque  was  just  on  the  point  of  entering  the  sene 
schal's  room.  No  other  door  was  heard  to  open  ;  and 
he  felt  assured  that  he  had  seen  the  lofty  figure  of  The 
Masque  gliding  into  that  apartment.  He  again  quick 
ened  his  steps  ;  a  light  burned  within,  the  door  stood 
ajar  ;  quietly  the  Prince  pushed  it  open,  and  entered 
with  the  fullest  assurance  that  he  should  here  at  length 
overtake  the  object  of  his  pursuit. 

Great  was  his  consternation  upon  finding  in  a  room, 
which  presented  no  outlet,  not  a  living  creature  except 
the  elderly  seneschal,  who  lay  quietly  sleeping  in  his 
arm-chair.  The  first  impulse  of  the  Prince  was  to 
awaken  him  roughly,  that  he  might  summon  aid 
and  co-operate  in  the  search.  One  glance  at  a 
paper  upon  the  table  arrested  his  hand.  He  saw  a 
name  written  there,  interesting  to  his  fears  beyond  all 
others  in  the  world.  His  eye  was  riveted  as  by  fasci 
nation  to  the  paper.  He  read  one  instant.  That  sat 
isfied  him  that  the  old  seneschal  must  be  overcome  by 


134  KLOSTERHEIM. 

no  counterfeit  slumbers,  when  he  could  thus  surrender 
a  secret  of  capital  importance  to  the  gaze  of  that  eye 
from  which  above  all  others  he  must  desire  to  screen 
it.  One  moment  he  deliberated  with  himself ;  the  old 
man  stirred,  and  muttered  in  his  dreams ;  the  Land 
grave  seized  the  paper  and  stood  irresolute  for  an 
instant  whether  to  await  his  wakening,  and  authorita 
tively  to  claim  what  so  nearly  concerned  his  own 
interest,  or  to  retreat  with  it  from  the  room  before  the 
old  man  should  be  aware  of  the  Prince's  visit,  or  his 
own  loss. 

But  the  seneschal,  wearied  perhaps  with  some  un 
usual  exertion,  had  but  moved  in  his  chair  ;  again  he 
composed  himself  to  deep  slumber,  made  deeper  by 
the  warmth  of  a  hot  fire.  The  raving  of  the  wind,  as 
it  whistled  round  this  angle  of  the  schloss,  drowned  all 
sounds  that  could  have  disturbed  him.  The  Landgrave 
secreted  the  paper  ;  nor  did  any  sense  of  his  rank  and 
character  interpose  to  check  him  in  an  act  so  unworthy 
of  an  honorable  cavalier.  Whatever  crimes  he  had 
hitherto  committed  or  authorized,  this  was  perhaps  the 
first  instance  in  which  he  had  offended  by  an  instance 
of  petty  knavery.  He  retired  with  the  stealthy  pace 
of  a  robber  anxious  to  evade  detection  ;  and  stole  back 
to  his  own  apartments  with  an  overpowering  interest 
in  the  discovery  he  had  made  so  accidentally,  and 
with  an  anxiety  to  investigate  it  farther,  which  ab- 


KLOSTKKHKIM.  135 

sorbed  for  the  time  all  other  cares,  and  banished  from 
his  thoughts  even  The  Masque  himself,  whose  sudden 
appearance  and  retreat  had  in  fact  thrown  into  his 
hands  the  secret  which  now  so  exclusively  disturbed 
him. 


136  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

MEANTIME  The  Masque  continued  to  harass  the 
Landgrave,  to  baffle  many  of  his  wiles,  and  to  neu 
tralize  his  most  politic  schemes.  In  one  of  the  many 
placards  which  he  affixed  to  the  castle  gates,  he  de 
scribed  the  Landgrave  as  ruling  in  Klosterheim  by 
day,  and  himself  by  night.  Sarcasms  such  as  these, 
together  with  the  practical  insults  which  The  Masque 
continually  offered  to  the  Landgrave,  by  foiling  his 
avowed  designs,  embittered  the  Prince's  existence. 
The  injury  done  to  his  political  schemes  of  ambition 
at  this  particular  crisis  was  irreparable.  One  after 
one,  all  the  agents  and  tools  by  whom  he  could  hope 
to  work  upon  the  counsels  of  the  Klosterheim  authori 
ties,  had  been  removed.  Losing  their  influence,  he 
had  lost  every  prop  of  his  own.  Nor  was  this  all ;  he 
was  reproached  by  the  general  voice  of  the  city  as  the 
original  cause  of  a  calamity,  which  he  had  since  shown 
himself  impotent  to  redress.  He  it  was,  and  his  cause, 
which  had  drawn  upon  the  people,  so  fatally  trepanned, 
the  hostility  of  the  mysterious  Masque.  But  for  his 
Highness,  all  the  burgomasters,  captains,  city-officers, 


KLOSTERHEIM.  137 

&c.,  would  now  be  sleeping  in  their  beds  ;  whereas 
the  best  fate  which  could  be  surmised  for  the  most  of 
them,  was,  that  they  were  sleeping  in  dungeons  ;  some 
perhaps  in  their  graves.  And  thus  the  Landgrave's 
cause  not  merely  lost  its  most  efficient  partisans,  but 
through  their  loss  determined  the  wavering  against 
him,  alienated  the  few  who  remained  of  his  own  fac 
tion,  and  gave  strength  and  encouragement  to  the 
general  disaffection  which  had  so  long  prevailed. 

Thus  it  happened  that  the  conspirators,  or  suspected 
conspirators,  could  not  be  brought  to  trial,  or  to  pun 
ishment  without  a  trial.  Any  spark  of  fresh  irritation 
falling  upon  the  present  combustible  temper  of  the 
populace,  would  not  fail  to  produce  an  explosion. 
Fresh  conspirators,  and  real  ones,  were  thus  encour 
aged  to  arise.  The  university,  the  city,  teemed  with 
plots.  The  government  of  the  Prince  was  exhausted 
with  the  growing  labor  of  tracing  and  counteracting 
them.  And,  by  little  and  little,  matters  came  into  such 
a  condition,  that  the  control  of  the  city,  though  still 
continuing  in  the  Landgrave's  hands,  was  maintained 
by  mere  martial  force,  and  at  the  very  point  of  the 
sword.  And  in  no  long  time,  it  was  feared,  that  with 
so  general  a  principle  of  hatred  to  combine  the  popu 
lace,  and  so  large  a  body  of  military  students  to  head 
them,  the  balance  of  power,  already  approaching  to  an 
equipoise,  would  be  turned  against  the  Landgrave's 
government.  And,  in  the  best  event,  his  Highness 


138  KLOSTERHEIM. 

could  now  look  for  nothing  from  their  love.  All 
might  be  reckoned  for  lost  that  could  not  be  extorted 
by  force. 

This  state  of  things  had  been  brought  about  by  the 
dreadful  Masque,  seconded,  no  doubt,  by  those  whom 
he  had  emboldened  and  aroused  within  ;  and,  as  the 
climax  and  crowning  injury  of  the  whole,  every  day 
unfolded  more  and  more  the  vast  importance  which 
Klosterheim  would  soon  possess  as  the  centre  and  key 
of  the  movements  to  be  anticipated  in  the  coming 
campaign.  An  electoral  cap  would  perhaps  reward 
the  services  of  the  Landgrave  in  the  general  pacifica 
tion,  if  he  could  present  himself  at  the  German  Diet  as 
the  possessor  de  facto  of  Klosterheim  and  her  territo 
rial  dependencies,  and  with  some  imperfect  possession 
de  jure  ;  still  more,  if  he  could  plead  the  merit  of 
having  brought  over  this  state,  so  important  from  local 
situation,  as  a  willing  ally  to  the  Swedish  interest.  But 
to  this,  a  free  vote  of  the  city  was  an  essential  prelimi 
nary  ;  and  from  that,  through  the  machinations  of  The 
Masque,  he  was  now  further  than  ever. 

The  temper  of  the  Prince  began  to  give  way  under 
these  accumulated  provocations.  An  enemy  forever 
aiming  his  blows  with  the  deadliest  effect ;  forever 
stabbing  in  the  dark  ;  yet  charmed  and  consecrated 
from  all  retaliation  ;  always  met  with,  never  to  be 
found  !  The  Landgrave  ground  his  teeth,  clenched 
his  fists,  with  spasms  of  fury.  He  quarrelled  with  Jiis 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  139 

ministers  ;  swore  at  the  officers  ;  cursed  the  sentinels  ; 
and  the  story  went  through  Klosterheim  that  he  had 
kicked  Adorni. 

Certain  it  was,  under  whatever  stimulus,  that  Adorni 
put  forth  much  more  zeal  at  last  for  the  apprehension 
of  The  Masque.  Come  what  would,  he  publicly 
avowed  that  six  days  more  should  not  elapse  without 
the  arrest  of  this  "  ruler  of  Klosterheim  by  night." 
He  had  a  scheme  for  the  purpose,  a  plot  baited  for 
snaring  him  ;  and  he  pledged  his  reputation  as  a  min 
ister  and  an  intriguer,  upon  its  entire  success. 

On  the  following  day,  invitations  were  issued  by 
Adorni,  in  his  Highnesses  name,  to  a  masqued  ball  on 
that  day  week.  The  fashion  of  masqued  entertain 
ments  had  been  recently  introduced  from  Italy  into 
this  sequestered  nook  of  Germany  ;  and  here,  as  there, 
it  had  been  abused  to  purposes  of  criminal  intrigue. 

Spite  of  the  extreme  unpopularity  of  the  Land 
grave  with  the  low  and  middle  classes  of  the  city, 
among  the  highest  his  little  court  still  continued  to 
furnish  a  central  resort  to  the  rank  and  high  blood, 
converged  in  such  unusual  proportion  within  the  walls 
of  Klosterheim.  The  schloss  was  still  looked  to  as 
the  standard  and  final  court  of  appeal  in  all  matters 
of  taste,  elegance,  and  high  breeding.  Hence  it 
naturally  happened  that  everybody,  with  any  claims 
to  such  an  honor,  was  anxious  to  receive  a  ticket  of 
admission;  —  it  became  the  test  for  ascertaining  a 


140  KLOSTERHEIM. 

person's  pretensions  to  mix  in  the  first  circles  of 
society  ;  and  with  this  extraordinary  zeal  for  obtain 
ing  an  admission,  naturally  increased  the  minister's 
rigor  and  fastidiousness  in  pressing  the  usual  investi 
gation  of  the  claimant's  qualifications.  Much  offence 
was  given  on  both  sides,  and  many  sneers  haz 
arded  at  the  minister  himself,  whose  pretensions  were 
supposed  to  be  of  the  lowest  description.  But  the 
result  was,  that  exactly  twelve  hundred  cards  were 
issued  ;  these  were  regularly  numbered,  and  below 
the  device  engraved  upon  the  card  was  impressed  a 
seal  bearing  the  arms  and  motto  of  the  Landgraves 

of  X . 

Every  precaution  was  taken  for  carrying  into  effect 
the  scheme,  with  all  its  details,  as  concerted  by 
Adorni ;  and  the  third  day  of  the  following  week  was 
announced  as  the  day  of  the  expected  fete. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  141 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  morning  of  the  important  day  at  length  ar 
rived,  and  all  Klosterheim  was  filled  with  expecta 
tion —  even  those  who  were  not  amongst  the  invited 
shared  in  the  anxiety ;  for  a  great  scene  was  looked 
for,  and  perhaps  some  tragical  explosion.  The  under 
taking  of  Adorni  was  known  ;  it  had  been  published 
abroad  that  he  was  solemnly  pledged  to  effect  the 
arrest  of  The  Masque  ;  and  by  many  it  was  believed 
that  he  would  so  far  succeed,  at  the  least,  as  to  bring 
on  a  public  collision  with  that  extraordinary  personage. 
As  to  the  issue,  most  people  were  doubtful ;  The 
Masque  having  hitherto  so  uniformly  defeated  the  best- 
laid  schemes  for  his  apprehension.  But  it  was  hardly 
questioned  that  the  public  challenge  offered  to  him  by 
Adorni  would  succeed  in  bringing  him  before  the 
public  eye.  This  challenge  had  taken  the  shape  of 
a  public  notice  posted  up  in  the  places  where  The 
Masque  had  usually  affixed  his  own  ;  and  it  was  to 
the  following  effect :  —  "  That  the  noble  strangers  now 
in  Klosterheim,  and  others  invited  to  the  Landgrave's 
fete,  who  might  otherwise  feel  anxiety  in  present- 


142  KLOSTERHEIM. 

ing  themselves  at  the  schloss,  from  an  apprehension 
of  meeting  with  the  criminal  disturber  of  the  public 
peace,  known  by  the  appellation  of  The  Masque, 
were  requested  by  authority  to  lay  aside  all  appre 
hensions  of  that  nature,  as  the  most  energetic  meas 
ures  had  been  adopted  to  prevent  or  chastise  upon 
the  spot  any  such  insufferable  intrusion ;  and  for  The 
Masque  himself,  if  he  presumed  to  disturb  the  company 
by  his  presence,  he  would  be  seized  where  he  stood, 
and  without  further  inquiry  committed  to  the  Provost 
Marshal  for  instant  execution  ;  —  on  which  account, 
all  persons  were  warned  carefully  to  forbear  from 
intrusions  of  simple  curiosity,  since  in  the  hurry  of 
the  moment  it  might  be  difficult  to  make  the  requisite 
distinctions." 

It  was  anticipated  that  this  insulting  notice  would 
not  long  go  without  an  answer  from  The  Masque. 
Accordingly,  on  the  following  morning,  a  placard, 
equally  conspicuous,  was  posted  up  in  the  same  public 
places,  side  by  side  with  that  to  which  it  replied.  It 
was  couched  in  the  following  terms  :  —  "  That  he  who 
ruled  by  night  in  Klosterheim,  could  not  suppose  him 
self  to  be  excluded  from  a  nocturnal  fete  given  by  any 
person  in  that  city ;  that  he  must  be  allowed  to 
believe  himself  invited  by  the  Prince,  and  would  cer 
tainly  have  the  honor  to  accept  his  Highness's  obliging 
summons.  With  regard  to  the  low  personalities  ad 
dressed  to  himself,  that  he  could  not  descend  to  notice 


KLOSTERHEIM.  143 

anything  ot  that  nature  coming  from  a  man  so  abject 
as  Adorni,  until  he  should  first  have  cleared  himself 
from  the  imputation  of  having  been  a  tailor  in  Venice 
at  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conspiracy  in  1618,  and 
banished  from  that  city,  not  for  any  suspicions  that 
could  have  settled  upon  him  and  his  eight  journeymen 
as  making  up  one  conspirator,  but  on  account  of  some 
professional  tricks  in  making  a  doublet  for  the  Doge. 
For  the  rest,  he  repeated  that  he  would  not  fail  to 
meet  the  Landgrave  and  his  honorable  company." 

All  Klosterheim  laughed  at  this  public  mortification 
offered  to  Adorni's  pride  ;  for  that  minister  had  in 
curred  the  public  dislike  as  a  foreigner,  and  their 
hatred  on  the  score  of  private  character.  Adorni 
himself  foamed  at  the  mouth  with  rage,  impotent 
for  the  present,  but  which  he  prepared  to  give 
deadly  effect  to  at  the  proper  time.  But  whilst  it 
laughed,  Klosterheim  also  trembled.  Some  persons, 
indeed,  were  of  opinion,  that  the  answer  of  The 
Masque  was  a  mere  sportive  effusion  of  malice  or 
pleasantry  from  the  students,  who  had  suffered  so 
much  by  his  annoyances.  But  the  majority,  amongst 
whom  was  Adorni  himself,  thought  otherwise.  Apart, 
even  from  the  reply,  or  the  insult  which  had  provoked 
it,  the  general  impression  was,  that  The  Masque  would 
not  have  failed  in  attending  a  festival  which,  by  the 
very  costume  which  it  imposed,  offered  so  favorable 
a  cloak  to  his  own  mysterious  purposes.  In  this  per- 


144  KLOSTERHEIM. 

suasion,  Adorni  took  all  the  precautions  which  per 
sonal  vengeance  and  Venetian  subtlety  could  suggest, 
for  availing  himself  of  the  single  opportunity  that 
would  perhaps  ever  be  allowed  him  for  entrapping 
this  public  enemy,  who  had  now  become  a  private  one 
to  himself. 

These  various  incidents  had  furnished  abundant 
matter  for  conversation  in  Klosterheim,  and  had  car 
ried  the  public  expectation  to  the  highest  pitch  of 
anxiety,  some  time  before  the  great  evening  arrived. 
Leisure  had  been  allowed  for  fear,  and  every  possible 
anticipation  of  the  wildest  character,  to  unfold  them 
selves.  Hope,  even,  amongst  many,  was  a  predom 
inant  sensation.  Ladies  were  preparing  for  hysterics. 
Cavaliers,  besides  the  swords  which  they  wore  as 
regular  articles  of  dress,  were  providing  themselves 
with  stilettoes  against  any  sudden  rencontre  hand  to 
hand,  or  any  unexpected  surprise.  Armorers  and 
furbishers  of  weapons  were  as  much  in  request  as 
the  more  appropriate  artists  who  minister  to  such 
festal  occasions.  These  again  were  summoned  to 
give  their  professional  aid  and  attendance  to  an  extent 
so  much  out  of  proportion  to  their  numbers  and  their 
natural  powers  of  exertion,  that  they  were  harassed 
beyond  all  physical  capacity  of  endurance,  and  found 
their  ingenuity  more  heavily  taxed  to  find  personal 
substitutes  amongst  the  trades  most  closely  connected 
with  their  own,  than  in  any  of  the  contrivances  which 


KLOSTERHEIM.  1  15 

»more  properly  fell  within  the  business  of  their  own 
art.  Tailors,  horse-milliners,  shoemakers,  friseurs, 
drapers,  mercers,  tradesmen  of  every  description,  and 
servants  of  every  class  and  denomination  were  sum 
moned  to  a  sleepless  activity  —  each  in  his  several 
vocation,  or  in  some  which  he  undertook  by  proxy. 
Artificers  who  had  escaped  on  political  motives  from 
Nuremburg  and  other  Imperial  cities,  or  from  the 
sack  of  Magdeburg,  now  showed  their  ingenuity,  and 
their  readiness  to  earn  the  bread  of  industry ;  and  if 
Klosterheim  resembled  a  hive  in  the  close-packed 
condition  of  its  inhabitants,  it  was  now  seen  that  the 
resemblance  held  good  hardly  less  in  the  industry 
which,  upon  a  sufficient  excitement,  it  was  able  to 
develope.  But  in  the  midst  of  all  this  stir,  din,  and 
unprecedented  activity,  whatever  occupation  each  man 
found  for  his  thoughts  or  for  his  hands  in  his  separate 
employments,  all  hearts  were  mastered  by  one  dom 
ineering  interest  —  the  approaching  collision  of  the 
Landgrave,  before  his  assembled  court,  with  the  mys 
terious  agent  who  had  so  long  troubled  his  repose. 

10 


146  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  day  at  length  arrived  ;  the  guards  were  posted 
in  unusual  strength  ;  the  pages  of  honor,  and  servants 
in  their  state-dresses,  were  drawn  up  in  long  and  gor 
geous  files  along  the  sides  of  the  vast  gothic  halls, 
which  ran  in  continued  succession  from  the  front  of 
the  scliloss  to  the  more  modern  saloons  in  the  rear ; 
bands  of  military  music,  collected  from  amongst  the 
foreign  prisoners  of  various  nations  at  Vienna,  were  sta 
tioned  in  their  national  costume  —  Italian,  Hungarian, 
Turkish,  or  Croatian  —  in  the  lofty  galleries  or  corri 
dors  which  ran  round  the  halls  ;  and  the  deep  thunders 
of  the  kettle-drums,  relieved  by  cymbals  and  wind- 
instruments,  began  to  fill  the  mazes  of  the  palace  as 
early  as  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening  ;  for  at  that  hour, 
according  to  the  custom  then  established  in  Germany, 
such  entertainments  commenced.  Repeated  volleys 
from  long  lines  of  musketeers,  drawn  up  in  the  square, 
and  at  the  other  entrances  of  the  palace,  with  the  deep 
roar  of  artillery,  announced  the  arrival  of  the  more  dis 
tinguished  visitors  ;  amongst  whom  it  was  rumored  that 


KLOSTERHEIM. 

several  officers  in  supreme  command  from  the  Swedish 
camp,  already  collected  in  the  neighhorhood,  were 
this  night  coming  incognito  —  availing  themselves  of 
their  masques  to  visit  the  Landgrave,  and  improve  the 
terms  of  their  alliance,  whilst  they  declined  the  risk 
which  they  might  have  brought  on  themselves  by  too 
open  a  visit  in  their  own  avowed  characters  and  per 
sons,  to  a  town  so  unsettled  in  its  state  of  feeling,  and  so 
friendly  to  the  Emperor,  as  Klosterheim  had  notorious 
ly  become. 

From  seven  to  nine  o'clock,  in  one  unbroken  line  of 
succession,  gorgeous  parties  streamed  along  through 
the  halls,  a  distance  of  full  half  a  quarter  of  a  mile, 
until  they  were  checked  by  the  barriers  erected  at  the 
entrance  to  the  first  of  the  entertaining  rooms,  as  the 
station  for  examining  the  tickets  of  admission.  This 
duty  was  fulfilled  in  a  way  which,  though  really  rigor 
ous  in  the  extreme,  gave  no  inhospitable  annoyance 
to  the  visitors  —  the  barriers  themselves  concealed 
their  jealous  purpose  of  hostility,  and  in  a  manner  dis 
avowed  the  secret  awe  and  mysterious  terror  which 
brooded  over  the  evening,  by  the  beauty  of  their  ex 
ternal  appearance.  They  presented  a  triple  line  of 
gilt  lattice-work,  rising  to  a  great  altitude,  and  con 
nected  with  the  fretted  roof  by  pendent  draperies  of 
the  most  magnificent  velvet,  intermingled  with  banners 
and  heraldic  trophies  suspended  from  the  ceiling,  and 
at  intervals  slowly  agitated  in  the  currents  which  now 


148  KLOSTERHE1M. 

and  then  swept  these  aerial  heights.  In  the  centre  of 
the  lattice  opened  a  single  gate,  on  each  side  of  which 
was  stationed  a  couple  of  sentinels  armed  to  the  teeth  ; 
and  this  arrangement  was  repeated  three  times,  so 
rigorous  was  the  vigilance  employed.  At  the  second 
of  the  gates,  where  the  bearer  of  a  forged  ticket  would 
have  found  himself  in  a  sort  of  trap,  with  absolutely 
no  possibility  of  escape,  every  individual  of  each  suc 
cessive  party  presented  his  card  of  admission,  and, 
fortunately  for  the  convenience  of  the  company,  in 
consequence  of  the  particular  precaution  used,  one 
moment's  inspection  sufficed.  The  cards  had  been 
issued  to  the  parties  invited  not  very  long  before  the 
time  of  assembling  ;  consequently,  as  each  was  sealed 
with  a  private  seal  of  the  Landgrave's  sculptured 
elaborately  with  his  armorial  bearings,  forgery  would 
have  been  next  to  impossible. 

These  arrangements,  however,  were  made  rather  to 
relieve  the  company  from  the  too  powerful  terrors 
which  haunted  them,  and  to  possess  them  from  the 
first  with  a  sense  of  security,  than  for  the  satisfaction 
of  the  Landgrave  or  his  minister.  They  were  sensible 
that  The  Masque  had  it  in  his  power  to  command  an 
access  from  the  interior  —  and  this  it  seemed  next  to 
impossible  altogether  to  prevent ;  nor  was  that  indeed 
the  wish  of  Adorni,  but  rather  to  facilitate  his  admis 
sion,  and  afterwards,  when  satisfied  of  his  actual 
presence,  to  bar  up  all  possibility  of  retreat.  Accord- 


KLOSTERHEIM.  149 

ingly,  the  interior  arrangements,  though  perfectly 
prepared,  and  ready  to  close  up  at  the  word  of  com 
mand,  were  for  the  present  but  negligently  enforced. 

Thus  stood  matters  at  nine  o'clock,  by  which  time 
upwards  of  a  thousand  persons  had  assembled ;  and 
in  ten  minutes  more  an  officer  reported  that  the 
whole  twelve  hundred  were  present  without  one  de 
faulter. 

The  Landgrave  had  not  yet  appeared,  his  minister 
having  received  the  company  ;  nor  was  he  expected  to 
appear  for  an  hour — in  reality,  he  was  occupied  in 
political  discussion  with  some  of  the  illustrious  incog 
nitos.  But  this  did  not  interfere  with  the  progress  of 
the  festival  ;  and  at  this  moment  nothing  could  be 
more  impressive  than  the  far-stretching  splendors  of 
the  spectacle. 

In  one  immense  saloon,  twelve  hundred  cavaliers 
and  ladies,  attired  in  the  unrivalled  pomp  of  that  age, 
were  arranging  themselves  for  one  of  the  magnificent 
Hungarian  dances,  which  the  Emperor's  court  at  Vienna 
had  transplanted  to  the  camp  of  Wallenstein,  and 
thence  to  all  the  great  houses  of  Germany.  Bevies  of 
noble  women,  in  every  variety  of  fanciful  costume, 
but  in  each  considerable  group  presenting  deep  masses 
of  black  or  purple  velvet,  on  which,  with  the  most 
striking  advantage  of  radiant  relief,  lay  the  costly  pearl 
ornaments,  or  the  sumptuous  jewels  so  generally  sig 
nificant  in  those  times  of  high  ancestral  pretensions, 


150  KLOSTERHEIM. 

intermingled  with  the  drooping  plumes  of  martial 
cavaliers,  who  presented  almost  universally  the  sol 
dierly  air  of  frankness  which  belongs  to  active  service, 
mixed  with  the  Castilian  grandezza  that  still  breathed 
through  the  camps  of  Germany,  emanating  originally 
from  the  magnificent  courts  of  Brussels,  of  Madrid, 
and  of  Vienna,  and  propagated  to  this  age  by  the  links 
of  Tilly,  the  Bavarian  commander,  and  Wallenstein, 
the  more  than  princely  commander  for  the  Emperor. 
Figures  and  habiliments  so  commanding  were  of  them 
selves  enough  to  fill  the  eye  and  occupy  the  imagina 
tion  ;  but,  beyond  all  this,  feelings  of  awe  and  mystery, 
under  more  shapes  than  one,  brooded  over  the  whole 
scene,  and  diffused  a  tone  of  suspense  and  intense  ex 
citement  throughout  the  vast  assembly.  It  was  known 
that  illustrious  strangers  were  present  incognito.  There 
now  began  to  be  some  reason  for  anticipating  a  great 
battle  in  the  neighborhood.  The  men  were  now  pres 
ent  perhaps,  the  very  hands  were  now  visibly  displayed 
for  the  coming  dance,  which  in  a  few  days  or  even 
hours  (so  rapid  were  the  movements  at  this  period) 
were  to  wield  the  truncheon  that  might  lay  the  Catholic 
empire  prostrate,  or  might  mould  the  destiny  of  Eu 
rope  for  centuries.  Even  this  feeling  gave  way  to 
one  still  more  enveloped  in  shades  —  The  Masque  ! 
Would  he  keep  his  promise  and  appear  ?  might  he 
not  even  now  be  moving  amongst  them  ?  may  he  not, 
even  at  this  very  moment,  thought  each  person,  secret- 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  151 

ly  be  near  me  —  or  even  touching  myself — or  haunt 
ing  my  own  steps  ? 

Yet  again,  thought  most  people  (for  at  that  time 
hardly  anybody  affected  to  be  incredulous  in  matters 
allied  to  the  supernatural),  was  this  mysterious  being 
liable  to  touch  ?  Was  he  not  of  some  impassive  nature, 
inaudible,  invisible,  impalpable  ?  Many  of  his  escapes, 
if  truly  reported,  seemed  to  argue  as  much.  If,  then, 
connected  with  the  spiritual  world,  was  it  with  the 
good  or  the  evil  in  that  inscrutable  region  ?  But  then 
the  bloodshed,  the  torn  dresses,  the  marks  of  deadly 
struggle,  which  remained  behind  in  some  of  those 
cases  where  mysterious  disappearances  had  occurred, 
—  these  seemed  undeniable  arguments  of  murder, 
foul  and  treacherous  murder.  Every  attempt,  in 
short,  to  penetrate  the  mystery  of  this  being's  nature 
proved  as  abortive  as  the  attempts  to  intercept  his 
person  ;  and  all  efforts  at  applying  a  solution  to  the 
difficulties  of  the  case,  made  the  mystery  even  more 
mysterious. 

These  thoughts,  however,  generally  as  they  pervaded 
the  company,  would  have  given  way  for  a  time  at 
least  to  the  excitement  of  the  scene  ;  for  a  sudden 
clapping  of  hands  from  some  officers  of  the  household, 
to  enforce  attention,  and  as  a  signal  to  the  orchestra  in 
one  of  the  galleries,  at  this  moment  proclaimed  that 
the  dances  were  on  the  point  of  commencing  in  another 
half  minute,  when  suddenly  a  shriek  from  a  female, 


152  KLOSTERHEIM. 

and  then  a  loud  tumultuous  cry  from  a  multitude  of 
voices,  announced  some  fearful  catastrophe ;  and  in  the 
next  moment  a  shout  of  "  Murder  ! "  froze  the  blood 
of  the  timid  amongst  the  company. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  153 


CHAPTER  XV. 

So  vast  was  the  saloon,  that  it  had  been  impossible, 
through  the  maze  of  figures,  the  confusion  of  colors, 
and  the  mingling  of  a  thousand  voices,  that  anything 
should  be  perceived  distinctly  at  the  lower  end  of  all 
that  was  now  passing  at  the  upper.  Still,  so  awful  is 
the  mystery  of  life,  and  so  hideous  and  accursed  in 
man's  imagination  is  every  secret  extinction  of  that 
consecrated  lamp,  that  no  news  thrills  so  deeply,  or 
travels  so  rapidly.  Hardly  could  it  be  seen  in  what 
direction,  or  through  whose  communication,  yet  in  less' 
than  a  minute  a  movement  of  sympathizing  horror, 
and  uplifted  hands,  announced  that  the  dreadful  news 
had  reached  them.  A  murder,  it  was  said,  had  been 
committed  in  the  palace.  Ladies  began  to  faint ;  oth 
ers  hastened  away  in  search  of  friends  ;  others  to  learn 
the  news  more  accurately  ;  and  some  of  the  gentle 
men,  who  thought  themselves  sufficiently  privileged  by 
rank,  hurried  off  with  a  stream  of  agitated  inquirers 
to  the  interior  of  the  castle,  in  search  of  the  scene  it 
self.  A  few  only  passed  the  guard  in  the  first  moments 


154  KLOSTERHEIM. 

of  confusion,  and  penetrated  with  the  agitated  Adorni 
through  the  long  and  winding  passages,  into  the  very 
scene  of  the  murder.  A  rumor  had  prevailed  for  a 
moment  that  the  Landgrave  was  himself  the  victim  ; 
and  as  the  road  by  which  the  agitated  household  con 
ducted  them  took  a  direction  towards  his  Highness's 
suite  of  rooms,  at  first  Adorni  had  feared  that  result. 
Recovering  his  self-possession,  however,  at  length,  he 
learned  that  it  was  the  poor  old  seneschal  upon  whom 
the  blow  had  fallen.  And  he  pressed  on  with  more 
coolness  to  the  dreadful  spectacle. 

The  poor  old  man  was  stretched  at  his  length  on  the 
floor.  It  did  not  seem  that  he  had  struggled  with  the 
murderer.  Indeed,  from  some  appearances,  it  seemed 
probable  that  he  had  been  attacked  whilst  sleeping  ; 
and  though  he  had  received  three  wounds,  it  was  pro 
nounced  by  a  surgeon  that  one  of  them  (and  tliat,  from 
circumstances,  the  first)  had  been  sufficient  to  extin 
guish  life.  He  was  discovered  by  his  daughter,  a 
woman  who  held  some  respectable  place  amongst  the 
servants  of  the  castle  ;  and  every  presumption  con 
curred  in  fixing  the  time  of  the  dreadful  scene  to  about 
one  hour  before. 

"  Such,  gentlemen,  are  the  acts  of  this  atrocious 
monster,  this  Masque,  who  has  so  long  been  the 
scourge  of  Klosterheim,"  said  Adorni  to  the  strangers 
who  had  accompanied  him,  as  they  turned  away  on 


XLOSTERIIEIM.  1  .">."> 

tlicir  return  to  the  company  ;  "  but  this  very  night, 
I  trust,  will  put  a  bridle  in  his  mouth." 

"  God  grant  it  may  be  so  !  "  said  some.  But  others 
thought  the  whole  case  too  mysterious  for  conjectures, 
and  too  solemn  to  be  decided  by  presumptions.  And 
in  the  midst  of  agitated  discussions  on  the  scene  they 
had  just  witnessed,  as  well  as  the  whole  history  of 
The  Masque,  the  party  returned  to  the  saloon. 

Under  ordinary  circumstances,  this  dreadful  event 
would  have  damped  the  spirits  of  the  company  ;  as  it 
was,  it  did  but  deepen  the  gloomy  excitement  which 
already  had  possession  of  all  present,  and  raise  a  more 
intense  expectation  of  the  visit  so  publicly  announced 
by  The  Masque.  It  seemed  as  though  he  had  perpetra 
ted  this  recent  murder  merely  by  way  of  reviving  the 
impression  of  his  own  di'eadful  character  in  Kloster- 
heiin,  which  might  have  decayed  a  little  of  late,  in  all 
its  original  strength  and  freshness  of  novelty  ;  or,  as 
though  he  wished  to  send  immediately  before  him  an 
act  of  atrocity  that  should  form  an  appropriate  herald 
or  harbinger  of  his  own  entrance  upon  the  scene. 

Dreadful,  however,  as  this  deed  of  darkness  was,  it 
seemed  of  too  domestic  a  nature  to  exercise  any  con 
tinued  influence  upon  so  distinguished  an  assembly,  so 
numerous,  so  splendid,  and  brought  together  at  so  dis 
tinguished  a  summons.  Again,  therefore,  the  masques 
prepared  to  mingle  in  the  dance  ;  again  the  signal  was 
given  ;  again  the  obedient  orchestra  preluded  to  the 


156  KLOSTERHE1M. 

coming  strains.  In  a  moment  more,  the  full  tide  of 
harmony  swept  along.  The  vast  saloon,  and  its  echo 
ing  roof,  rang  with  the  storm  of  music.  The  masques, 
with  their  floating  plumes  and  jewelled  caps,  glided 
through  the  fine  mazes  of  the  Hungarian  dances.  All 
was  one  magnificent  and  tempestuous  confusion,  over 
flowing  with  the  luxury  of  sound  and  sight,  when 
suddenly,  about  midnight,  a  trumpet  sounded,  the 
Landgrave  entered,  and  all  was  hushed.  The  glittering 
crowd  arranged  themselves  in  a  half  circle  at  the  upper 
end  of  the  room ;  his  Highness  went  rapidly  round 
saluting  the  company,  and  receiving  their  homage  in 
return.  A  signal  was  again  made  ;  the  music  and  the 
dancing  were  resumed  ;  and  such  was  the  animation 
and  the  turbulent  delight  amongst  the  gayer  part  of  the 
company,  from  the  commingling  of  youthful  blood 
with  wine,  lights,  music,  and  festal  conversation,  that, 
with  many,  all  thoughts  of  the  dreadful  Masque,  who 
"  reigned  by  night  in  Klosterheim,"  had  faded  before 
the  exhilaration  of  the  moment.  Midnight  had  come ; 
the  dreadful  apparition  had  not  yet  entered  :  young 
ladies  began  timidly  to  jest  upon  the  subject,  though 
as  yet  but  faintly,  and  in  a  tone  somewhat  serious  for 
a  jest ;  and  young  cavaliers,  who,  to  do  them  justice, 
had  derived  most  part  of  their  terrors  from  the  super 
stitious  view  of  the  case,  protested  to  their  partners 
that  if  The  Masque,  on  making  his  appearance,  should 
conduct  himself  in  a  manner  unbecoming  a  cavalier, 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  157 

or  offensive  to  the  ladies  present,  they  should  feel  it 
their  duty  to  chastise  him  ;  "  though,"  said  they,  "  with 
respect  to  old  Adorni,  should  The  Masque  think  proper 
to  teach  him  better  manners,  or  even  to  cane  him, 
we  shall  not  find  it  necessary  to  interfere." 

Several  of  the  very  young  ladies  protested  that,  of 
all  things,  they  should  like  to  see  a  battle  between  old 
Adorni  and  The  Masque,  "  such  a  love  of  a  quiz  that 
old  Adorni  is !  "  whilst  others  debated  whether  The 
Masque  would  turn  out  a  young  man  or  an  old  one  ; 
and  a  few  elderly  maidens  mooted  the  point  whether 
he  were  likely  to  be  a  "  single  "  gentleman,  or  bur 
dened  with  a  "  wife  and  family."  These  and  similar 
discussions  were  increasing  in  vivacity,  and  kindling 
more  and  more  gayety  of  repartee,  when  suddenly, 
with  the  effect  of  a  funeral  knell  upon  their  mirth,  a 
whisper  began  to  circulate,  that  there  was  one  Masque 
too  many  in  company.  Persons  had  been  stationed  by 
Adorni  in  different  galleries,  with  instructions  to  note 
accurately  the  dress  of  every  person  in  the  company  ; 
to  watch  the  motions  of  every  one  who  gave  the 
slightest  cause  for  suspicion,  by  standing  aloof  from 
the  rest  of  the  assembly,  or  by  any  other  peculiarity  of 
manner  ;  but,  above  all,  to  count  the  numbers  of  the 
total  assembly.'  This  last  injunction  was  more  easily 
obeyed  than  at  first  sight  seemed  possible.  At  this 
time,  the  Hungarian  dances,  which  required  a  certain 
number  of  partners  to  execute  the  movements  of  the 


158  KLOSTERHEIM. 

figure,  were  of  themselves  a  sufficient  register  of  the 
precise  amount  of  persons  engaged  in  them.  And,  as 
these  dances  continued  for  a  long  time  undisturbed, 
this  calculation  once  made,  left  no  further  computation 
necessary,  than  simply  to  take  the  account  of  all  who 
stood  otherwise  engaged.  This  list  being  much  the 
smaller  one,  was  soon  made  ;  and  the  reports  of  sev 
eral  different  observers,  stationed  in  different  galleries, 
and  checked  by  each  other,  all  tallied  in  reporting  a 
total  of  just  twelve  hundred  and  one  persons,  after 
every  allowance  was  made  for  the  known  members 
of  the  Landgrave's  suite,  who  were  all  unmasqued. 

This  report  was  announced  with  considerable  trepi 
dation,  in  a  very  audible  whisper  to  Adorni  and  the 
Landgrave.  The  buzz  of  agitation  attracted  instant 
attention  ;  the  whisper  was  loud  enough  to  catch  the 
ears  of  several ;  the  news  went  rapidly  kindling 
through  the  room  that  the  company  was  too  many  by 
one  :  all  the  ladies  trembled,  their  knees  shook,  their 
voices  failed,  they  stopped  in  the  very  middle  of  ques 
tions,  answers  halted  for  their  conclusion,  and  were 
never  more  remembered  by  either  party  ;  the  very 
music  began  to  falter,  the  lights  seemed  to  wane  and 
sicken  ;  for  the  fact  was  now  too  evident  —  that  The 
Masque  had  kept  his  appointment,  and  was  at  this  mo 
ment  in  the  room.  "  to  meet  the  Landgrave  and  his 
honorable  company." 

Adorni  and  the  Landgrave  now  walked  apart  from 


KLOSTERHE1M.  159 

the  rest  of  the  household,  and  were  obviously  consult 
ing  together  on  the  next  step  to  be  taken,  or  on  the 
proper  moment  for  executing  one  which  had  already 
boon  decided  on.  Some  crisis  seemed  approaching, 
and  the  knees  of  many  ladies  knocked  together,  as 
they  anticipated  some  cruel  or  bloody  act  of  vengeance. 
"  Oh,  poor  Masque  !  "  sighed  a  young  lady  in  her 
tender-hearted  concern  for  one  who  seemed  now  at 
the  mercy  of  his  enemies  ;  "  Do  you  think,  sir,"  ad 
dressing  her  partner,  "  they  will  cut  him  to  pieces  ?  " 
— "  Oh,  that  wicked  old  Adorni !  "  exclaimed  another  ; 
"  I  know  he  will  stick  the  poor  Masque  on  one  side, 
and  somebody  else  will  stick  him  on  the  other ;  I 
know  he  will,  because  the  Masque  called  him  a  tailor  : 
do  you  think  he  was  a  tailor,  sir  ?  "  —  u  Why,  really, 
madam,  he  walks  like  a  tailor  ;  but  then  he  must  be  a 
very  bad  one,  considering  how  ill  his  own  clothes  are 
made  ;  and  that-,  you  know,  is  next  door  to  being  none 
at  all.  But  see,  his  Highness  is  going  to  stop  the 
music." 

In  fact,  at  that  moment  the  Landgrave  made  a  signal 
to  the  orchestra  ;  the  music  ceased  abruptly  ;  and  his 
Highness  advancing  to  the  company,  who  stood  eagerly 
awaiting  his  words,  said  — "  Illustrious  and  noble 
friends  !  for  a  very  urgent  and  special  cause  I  will  re 
quest  of  you  all  to  take  your  seats." 

The  company  obeyed,  every  one  sought  the  chair 


160  KLOSTERHEIM. 

next  to  him,  or  if  a  lady,  accepted  that  which  was 
offered  by  the  cavalier  at  her  side.  The  standers 
continually  diminished.  Two  hundred  were  left,  one 
hundred  and  fifty,  eighty,  sixty,  twenty,  till  at  last 
they  were  reduced  to  two,  —  both  gentlemen,  who  had 
been  attending  upon  ladies.  They  were  suddenly  aware 
of  their  own  situation.  One  chair  only  remained  out 
of  twelve  hundred.  Eager  to  exonerate  himself  from 
suspicion,  each  sprang  furiously  to  this  seat ;  each 
attained  it  at  the  same  moment,  and  each  possessed 
himself  of  part  at  the  same  instant.  As  they  happened 
to  be  two  elderly  corpulent  men,  the  younger  cavaliers, 
under  all  the  restraints  of  the  moment,  the  panic  of  the 
company,  and  the  Landgrave's  presence,  could  not 
forbear  laughing  ;  and  the  more  spirited  amongst  the 
young  ladies  caught  the  infection. 

His  Highness  was  little  in  a  temper  to  brook  this 
levity  ;  and  hastened  to  relieve  the  joint  occupants 
of  the  chair  from  the  ridicule  of  their  situation. 
u  Enough  !  "  he  exclaimed,  "  enough  !  all  my  friends 
are  requested  to  resume  the  situation  most  agreeable  to 
them  ;  my  purpose  is  answered."  —  The  prince  was 
himself  standing  with  all  his  household,  and,  as  a 
point  of  respect,  all  the  company  rose.  ("  As  you 
were"  whispered  the  young  soldiers  to  their  fair  com 
panions.) 

Adorni  now  came  forward.    "  It  is  known,"  said  he 


KLOSTERHEIM.  1G1 

"  by  trials  more  than  sufficient,  that  some  intruder,  with 
the  worst  intentions,  has  crept  into  this  honorable  com 
pany.  The  ladies  present  will  therefore  have  the 
goodness  to  retire  apart  to  the  lower  end  of  the  saloon, 
whilst  the  noble  cavaliers  will  present  themselves  in 
succession  to  six  officers  of  his  Highness's  household, 
to  whom  they  will  privately  communicate  their  names 
and  quality." 

This  arrangement  was  complied  with,  not,  however, 
without  the  exchange  of  a  few  flying  jests  on  the  part 
of  the  younger  cavaliers,  and  their  fair  partners,  as 
they  separated  for  the  purpose.  The  cavaliers,  who 
were  rather  more  than  five  hundred  in  number,  went 
up  as  they  were  summoned  by  the  number  marked 
upon  their  cards  of  admission,  and  privately  communi 
cating  with  some  one  of  the  officers  appointed,  were 
soon  told  ofT,  and  filed  away  to  the  right  of  the  Land 
grave,  waiting  for  the  signal  which  should  give  them 
permission  to  rejoin  their  parties. 

All  had  been  now  told  off,  within  a  score.  These 
were  clustered  together  in  a  group  ;  and  in  that  group 
undoubtedly  was  The  Masque.  Every  eye  was  con 
verged  upon  this  small  knot  of  cavaliers  ;  each  of  the 
spectators,  according  to  his  fancy,  selected  the  one  who 
came  nearest  in  dress,  or  in  personal  appearance,  to 
his  preconceptions  of  that  mysterious  agent.  Not  a 
word  was  uttered,  not  a  whisper ;  hardly  a  robe  was 
heard  to  rustle,  or  a  feather  to  wave. 
11 


162  KLOSTERHEIM. 

The  twenty  were  rapidly  reduced  to  twelve,  these  to 
six,  the  six  to  four  —  three  —  two  ;  the  tale  of  the  in 
vited  was  complete,  and  one  man  remained  behind. 
That  was,  past  doubting,  The  Masque  ! 


KLOSTERHKIM.  1C3 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

"  THERE  stands  he  that  governs  Klosterheim  by 
night !  "  thought  every  cavalier,  as  he  endeavored  to 
pierce  the  gloomy  being's  concealment,  with  pene 
trating  eyes,  or  by  scrutiny,  ten  times  repeated,  to 
unmasque  the  dismal  secrets  which  lurked  beneath  his 
disguise.  "  There  stands  the  gloomy  murderer  ! " 
thought  another.  "  There  stands  the  poor  detected 
criminal,"  thought  the  pitying  young  ladies,  "  who  in 
the  next  moment  must  lay  bare  his  breast  to  the  Land 
grave's  musketeers." 

The  figure  meantime  stood  tranquil  and  collected, 
apparently  not  in  the  least  disturbed  by  the  conscious 
ness  of  his  situation,  or  the  breathless  suspense  of 
more  than  a  thousand  spectators  of  rank  and  eminent 
station,  all  bending  their  looks  upon  himself.  He  had 
been  leaning  against  a  marble  column,  as  if  wrapped 
up  in  reverie,  and  careless  of  everything  about  him. 
But  when  the  dead  silence  announced  that  the  cere 
mony  was  closed,  that  he  only  remained  to  answer  for 
himself,  and  upon  palpable  proof — evidence  not  to  be 


164  KLOSTERHEIM. 

gainsayed  —  incapable  of  answering  satisfactorily  ; 
when  in  fact  it  was  beyond  dispute  that  here  was  at 
length  revealed,  in  bodily  presence,  before  the  eyes  of 
those  whom  he  had  so  long  haunted  with  terrors,  The 
Masque  of  Klosterheim,  —  it  was  naturally  expected 
that  now  at  least  he  would  show  alarm  and  trepidation ; 
that  he  would  prepare  for  defence,  or  address  himself 
to  instant  flight. 

Far  otherwise  !  —  cooler  than  any  one  person  beside 
in  the  saloon,  he  stood,  like  the  marble  column  against 
which  he  had  been  reclining,  upright  —  massy  —  and 
imperturbable.  He  was  enveloped  in  a  voluminous 
mantle,  which  at  this  moment,  with  a  leisurely  motion, 
he  suffered  to  fall  at  his  feet,  and  displayed  a  figure  in 
which  the  grace  of  an  Antinous  met  with  the  columnar 
strength  of  a  Grecian  Hercules,  —  presenting,  in  its  tout 
ensemble,  the  majestic  proportions  of  a  Jupiter.  He  stood 
—  a  breathing  statue  of  gladiatorial  beauty,  towering 
above  all  who  were  near  him,  and  eclipsing  the  noblest 
specimens  of  the  human  form  which  the  martial  as 
sembly  presented.  A  buzz  of  admiration  arose,  which 
in  the  following  moment  was  suspended  by  the  dubious 
recollections  investing  his  past  appearances,  and  the 
terror  which  waited  even  on  his  present  movements. 
He  was  armed  to  the  teeth  ;  and  he  was  obviously 
preparing  to  move. 

Not  a  word  had  yet  been  spoken  ;  so  tumultuous 
was  the  succession  of  surprises,  so  mixed  and  conflict- 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  1G5 

ing  the  feelings,  so  intense  the  anxiety.  The  arrange 
ment  of  the  groups  was  this;  —  at  the  lower  half  of 
the  room,  but  starting  forward  in  attitudes  of  admira 
tion  or  suspense,  were  the  ladies  of  Klosterheim.  At 
the  upper  end,  in  the  centre,  one  hand  raised  to  be 
speak  attention,  was  The  Masque  of  Klosterheim.  To 
his  left,  and  a  little  behind  him,  with  a  subtle  Venetian 
countenance,  one  hand  waving  back  a  half  file  of 
musketeers,  and  the  other  raised  as  if  to  arrest  the  arm 
of  The  Masque,  was  the  wily  minister  Adorni  —  creep 
ing  nearer  and  nearer  with  a  stealthy  stride.  To  his 
right  was  the  great  body  of  Klosterheim  cavaliers,  a 
score  of  students  and  young  officers  pressing  forward 
to  the  front ;  but  in  advance  of  the  whole,  the  Land 
grave  of  X ,  haughty,  lowering,  and  throwing  out 

looks  of  defiance.  These  were  the  positions  and  atti 
tudes  in  which  the  first  discovery  of  The  Masque  had 
surprised  them ;  and  these  they  still  retained.  Less 
dignified  spectators  were  looking  downwards  from  the 
galleries. 

"  Surrender  !"  was  the  first  word  by  which  silence 
was  broken  ;  it  came  from  the  Landgrave. 

"  Or  die  !  "  exclaimed  Adorni. 

"  He  dies  in  any  case,"  rejoined  the  Prince. 

The  Masque  still  raised  his  hand  with  the  action  of 
one  who  bespeaks  attention.  Adorni  he  deigned  not 
to  notice.  Slightly  inclining  his  head  to  the  Land 
grave,  in  a  tone  to  which  it  might  be  the  head-dress  of 


166  KLOSTERHEIM. 

elaborate  steel-work  that  gave  a  sepulchral  tone,  he 
replied, — 

"  The  Masque,  who  rules  in  Klosterheim  by  night, 
surrenders  not.  He  can  die.  But  first  he  will  com 
plete  the  ceremony  of  the  night,  he  will  reveal  him 
self." 

"That  is  superfluous,"  exclaimed  Adorni;  "we need 
no  further  revelations.  Seize  him,  and  lead  him  out 
to  death ! " 

"  Dog  of  an  Italian  !  "  replied  The  Masque,  drawing 
a  dag  *  from  his  belt,  "  die  first  yourself !  "  And  so 
saying,  he  slowly  turned  and  levelled  the  barrel  at 
Adorni,  who  fled  with  two  bounds  to  the  soldiers  in  the 
rear.  Then,  withdrawing  the  weapon  hastily,  he 
added  in  a  tone  of  cool  contempt,  "  Or  bridle  that 
coward's  tongue." 

But  this  was  not  the  minister's  intention.  "  Seize 
him  ! "  he  cried  again  impetuously  to  the  soldiers,  lay 
ing  his  hand  on  the  arm  of  the  foremost,  and  pointing 
them  forward  to  their  prey. 

"  No  ! "  said  the  Landgrave,  with  a  commanding 
voice  ;  "  Halt !  I  bid  you."  Something  there  was  in 
the  tone,  or  it  might  be  that  there  was  something  in  his 
private  recollections,  or  something  in  the  general  mys 
tery,  which  promised  a  discovery  that  he  feared  to 
lose  by  the  too  precipitate  vengeance  of  the  Italian. 

*  Dag,  a  sort  of  pistol  or  carbine. 


KLOSTERHEIM. 


167 


"  What  is  it,  mysterious  being,  that  you  would  reveal  ? 
Or  who  is  it  that  you  now  believe  interested  in  your 
revelations  ?  " 

"  Yourself.  Prince,  it  would  seem  that  you  have 
me  at  your  mercy  :  wherefore,  then,  the  coward  haste 
of  this  Venetian  hound  ?  I  am  one  ;  you  are  many. 
Lead  me  then  out ;  shoot  me.  But  no  :  freely  I  en 
tered  this  hall ;  freely  I  will  leave  it.  If  I  must  die,  I 
will  die  as  a  soldier.  Such  I  am ;  and  neither  runagate 
from  a  foreign  land  ;  nor  "  —  turning  to  Adorni  —  "a 
base  mechanic." 

"  But  a  murderer  ! "  shrieked  Adorni  :  "  but  a 
murderer  ;  and  with  hands  yet  reeking  from  innocent 
blood  ! " 

"  Blood,  Adorni,  that  I  will  yet  avenge.  Prince, 
you  demand  the  nature  of  my  revelations.  I  will  re 
veal  my  name,  my  quality,  and  my  mission." 

"  And  to  whom  ?  " 

"  To  yourself,  and  none  beside.  And,  as  a  pledge 
for  the  sincerity  of  my  discoveries,  I  will  first  of  all 
communicate  a  dreadful  secret,  known,  as  you  fondly 
believe,  to  none  but  your  Highness.  Prince,  dare  you 
receive  my  revelations  ?  " 

Speaking  thus,  The  Masque  took  one  step  to  the 
rear,  turning  his  back  upon  the  room,  and  by  a  ges 
ture,  signified  his  wish  that  the  Landgrave  should 
accompany  him.  But  at  this  motion,  ten  or  a  dozen 
of  the  foremost  among  the  young  cavaliers  started  for- 


168  KLOSTEKIIEIM. 

ward  in  advance  of  the  Landgrave,  in  part  forming  a 
half  circle  about  his  person,  and  in  part  commanding 
the  open  door-way. 

"  He  is  armed  !  "  they  exclaimed  ;  "  and  trebly 
armed:  will  your  Highness  approach  him  too  nearly  ?" 

"I  fear  him  not,"  said  the  Landgrave,  with  some 
thing  of  a  contemptuous  tone. 

"  Wherefore  should  you  fear  me  ?  "  retorted  The 
Masque,  with  a  manner  so  tranquil  and  serene  as  in 
voluntary  to  disarm  suspicion  :  "  Were  it  possible  that 
I  should  seek  the  life  of  any  man  here  in  particular,  in 
that  case,  (pointing  to  the  fire-arms  in  his  belt,)  why 
should  1  need  to  come  nearer  ?  Were  it  possible  that 
any  should  find  in  my  conduct  here  a  motive  to  a  per 
sonal  vengeance  upon  myself,  which  of  you  is  not  near 
enough  ?  Has  your  Highness  the  courage  to  trample 
on  such  terrors  ?  " 

Thus  challenged  as  it  were  to  a  trial  of  his  courage 
before  the  assembled  rank  of  Klosterheim,  the  Land 
grave  waved  off  all  who  would  have  stepped  forward 
officiously  to  his  support.  If  he  felt  any  tremors,  he 
was  now  sensible  that  pride  and  princely  honor  called 
upon  him  to  dissemble  them.  And  probably,  that 
sort  of  tremors,  which  he  felt  in  reality,  did  no 
point  in  a  direct  ion  to  which  physical  support,  such 
as  was  now  tendered,  could  have  been  available. 
He  hesitated  no  longer,  but  strode  forward  to  meet 
The  Masque.  His  highness  and  The  Masque  met 


KLOSTERHEIM.  169 

near  tlic  archway  of  the  door,  in  the  very  centre  of 
the1  Lfi'oups. 

With  a  thrilling  tone,  deep  —  piercing  —  full  of 
alarm,  The  Masque  began  thus  :  — 

"  To  win  your  confidence,  forever  to  establish  credit 
with  your  Highness,  I  will  first  of  all  reveal  the  rmme 
of  that  murderer,  who  this  night  dared  to  pollute  your 
palace  with  an  old  man's  blood.  Prince,  bend  your 
ear  a  little  this  way." 

With  a  shudder,  and  a  visible  effort  of  self-com 
mand,  the  Landgrave  inclined  his  ear  to  The  Masque, 
who  added,  — 

"  Your  Highness  will  be  shocked  to  hear  it :  "  then, 
in  a  lower  tone,  "  Who  could  have  believed  it  ?  — 

It  was  ."  All  was  pronounced  clearly  and 

strongly,  except  the  last  word  —  the  name  of  the 
murderer  :  that  was  made  audible  only  to  the  Land 
grave's  ear. 

Sudden  and  tremendous  was  the  effect  upon  the 
Prince  :  he  reeled  a  few  paces  off;  put  his  hand  to  the 
hilt  of  his  sword  ;  smote  his  forehead  ;  threw  frenzied 
looks  upon  The  Masque,  —  now  half  imploring,  now 
dark  with  vindictive  wrath.  Then  succeeded  a  pause 
of  profoundest  silence,  during  which  all  the  twelve 
hundred  visitors,  whom  he  had  himself  assembled,  as 
if  expressly  to  make  them  witnesses  of  this  extraordi 
nary  scene,  and  of  the  power  with  which  a  stranger 
could  shake  him  to  and  fro  in  a  tempestuous  strife  of 


170  KLOSTERHEIM. 

passions,  were  looking  and  hearkening  with  senses  on 
the  stretch  to  pierce  the  veil  of  silence  and  of  distance. 
At  last  the  Landgrave  mastered  his  emotions  sufficient 
ly  to  say,  "  Well,  sir,  what  next  ?  " 

"  Next  comes  a  revelation  of  another  kind  ;  and  I 
warn  you,  sir,  that  it  will  not  be  less  trying  to  the 
nerves.  For  this  first  I  needed  your  ear ;  now  I  shall 
need  your  eyes.  Think  again,  Prince,  whether  you 
will  stand  the  trial." 

"  Pshaw !  sir,  you  trifle  with  me  ;  again  I  tell  you 
But  here  the  Landgrave  spoke  with  an  af 
fectation  of  composure  and  with  an  effort  that  did  not 
escape  notice  ;  —  "  again  I  tell  you  that  I  fear  you  not. 
Go  on." 

"  Then  come  forward  a  little,  please  your  Highness, 
to  the  light  of  this  lamp."  So  saying,  with  a  step  or 
two  in  advance,  he  drew  the  Prince  under  the  power 
ful  glare  of  a  lamp  suspended  near  the  great  archway 
ef  entrance  from  the  interior  of  the  palace.  Both  were 
now  standing  with  their  faces  entirely  averted  from  the 
spectators.  Still  more  effectually,  however,  to  screen 
himself  from  any  of  those  groups  on  the  left,  whose 
advanced  position  gave  them  somewhat  more  the  ad 
vantage  of  an  oblique  aspect,  The  Masque,  at  this 
moment,  suddenly  drew  up,  with  his  left  hand,  a  short 
Spanish  mantle  which  depended  from  his  shoulders, 
and  now  gave  him  the  benefit  of  a  lateral  screen. 
Then,  so  far  as  the  company  behind  them  could  guess 


KLOSTERHEIIM.  171 

at  his  act,  unlocking  with  his  right  hand  and  raising 
the  masque  which  shrouded  his  mysterious  features, 
he  shouted  aloud  in  a  voice  that  rang  clear  through 
evpry  corner  of  the  vast  saloon,  "  Landgrave,  for 
crimes  yet  unrevealed,  I  summon  you,  in  twenty  days, 
before  a  tribunal  where  there  is  no  shield  but  inno 
cence  !  "  and  at  that  moment  turned  his  countenance 
full  upon  the  Prince. 

With  a  yell,  rather  than  a  human  expression  of 
terror,  the  Landgrave  fell,  as  if  shot  by  a  thunderbolt, 
stretched  at  his  full  length  upon  the  ground,  lifeless 
apparently,  and  bereft  of  consciousness  or  sensation. 
A  sympathetic  cry  of  horror  arose  from  the  spectators. 
All  rushed  towards  The  Masque.  The  young  cava 
liers,  who  had  first  stepped  forward  as  volunteers  in 
the  Landgrave's  defence,  were  foremost,  and  inter 
posed  between  The  Masque  and  the  outstretched  arms 
of  Adorni,  as  if  eager  to  seize  him  first.  In  an  instant 
a  sudden  and  dense  cloud  of  smoke  arose,  nobody 
knew  whence.  Repeated  discharges  of  fire-arms  were 
heard  resounding  from  the  doorway  and  the  passages  ; 
these  increased  the  smoke  and  the  confusion.  Trumpets 
sounded  through  the  corridors.  The  whole  archway, 
under  which  The  Masque  and  the  Landgrave  had  been 
standing,  became  choked  up  with  soldiery,  summoned 
by  the  furious  alarms  that  echoed  through  the  palace. 
All  was  one  uproar  and  chaos  of  masques,  plumes, 
helmets,  halberds,  trumpets,  gleaming  sabres,  and  the 


172  KLOSTERHEIM. 

fierce  faces  of  soldiery  forcing  themselves  through  the 
floating  drapery  of  smoke  that  now  filled  the  whole 
upper  end  of  the  saloon.  Adorni  was  seen  in  the 
midst  raving  fruitlessly.  Nobody  heard  :  nobody  lis 
tened.  Universal  panic  had  seized  the  household,  the 
soldiery,  and  the  company.  Nobody  understood  ex 
actly  for  what  purpose  the  tumult  had  commenced  — 
in  what  direction  it  tended.  Some  tragic  catastrophe 
was  reported  from  mouth  to  mouth:  nobody  knew  what. 
Some  said,  the  Landgrave  had  been  assassinated ; 
some,  The  Masque  ;  some  asserted  that  both  had 
perished  under  reciprocal  assaults.  More  believed  that 
The  Masque  had  proved  to  be  of  that  supernatural 
order  of  beings,  with  which  the  prevailing  opinions  of 
Klosterheim  had  long  classed  him  ;  and  that,  upon 
raising  his  disguise,  he  had  revealed  to  the  Landgrave, 
the  fleshless  skull  of  some  forgotten  tenant  of  the 
grave.  This  indeed  seemed  to  many  the  only  solution 
that,  whilst  it  fell  in  with  the  prejudices  and  supersti 
tions  of  the  age,  was  of  a  nature  to  account  for  that 
tremendous  effect  which  the  discovery  had  produced 
upon  the  Landgrave.  But  it  was  one  that  naturally 
could  be  little  calculated  to  calm  the  agitations  of  the 
public  prevailing  at  this  moment.  This  spread  con 
tagiously.  The  succession  of  alarming  events,  —  the 
murder,  the  appearance  of  The  Masque,  his  subse 
quent  extraordinary  behavior,  the  overwhelming  im 
pression  upon  the  Landgrave,  which  had  formed  the 


KLOSTERHEIM.  173 

catastrophe  of  this  sccnical  exhibition,  —  the  conster 
nation  of  the  great  Swedish  officers,  who  were  spending 
the  night  in  Klosterheim,  and  reasonably  suspected 
that  the  tumult  might  be  owing  to  the  sudden  detection 
of  their  own  incognito,  and  that,  in  consequence,  the 
populace  of  this  Imperial  city  were  suddenly  rising  to 
arms  ;  the  endless  distraction  find  counteraction  of  so 
many  thousand  persons  —  visitors,  servants,  soldiery, 
household  —  all  hurrying  to  the  same  point,  and  bring 
ing  assistance  to  a  danger  of  which  nobody  knew  the 
origin,  nobody  the  nature,  nobody  the  issue  ;  multitudes 
commanding  where  all  obedience  was  forgotten,  all 
subordination  had  gone  to  wreck  ;  —  these  circum 
stances  of  distraction  united  to  sustain  a  scene  of 
absolute  frenzy  in  the  castle,  which,  for  more  than 
half  an  hour,  the  dense  columns  of  smoke  aggravated 
alarmingly  by  raising,  in  many  quarters,  additional 
terrors  of  fire.  And  when  at  last,  after  infinite  exer 
tions,  the  soldiery  had  deployed  into  the  ball-room 
and  the  adjacent  apartments  of  state,  and  had  suc 
ceeded,  at  the  point  of  the  pike,  in  establishing  a  safe 
egress  for  the  twelve  hundred  visitors,  it  was  then  first 
ascertained  that  all  traces  of  The  Masque  had  been 
lost  in  the  smoke  and  subsequent  confusion  ;  and  that, 
with  his  usual  good  fortune,  he  had  succeeded  in 
baffling  his  pursuers. 


174  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

MEANTIME  the  Lady  Paulina  had  spent  her  time  in 
secret  grief,  inconsolable  for  the  supposed  tragical  fate 
of  Maximilian.  It  was  believed  that  he  had  perished. 
This  opinion  had  prevailed  equally  amongst  his  friends, 
and  the  few  enemies  whom  circumstances  had  made 
him.  Supposing  even  that  he  had  escaped  with  life 
from  the  action,  it  seemed  inevitable  that  he  should 
have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  bloody  Holkerstein  ; 
and  under  circumstances  which  would  point  him  out 
to  the  vengeance  of  that  cruel  ruffian,  as  having 
been  the  leader  in  the  powerful  resistance  which  had 
robbed  him  of  his  prey. 

Stung  with  the  sense  of  her  irreparable  loss,  and  the 
premature  grief  which  had  blighted  her  early  hopes, 
Paulina  sought  her  refuge  in  solitude,  and  her  con 
solations  in  religion.  In  the  convent,  where  she  had 
found  a  home,  the  ceremonies  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
service  were  maintained  with  the  strictness  and  the 
pomp  suitable  to  its  ample  endowments.  The  Em 
peror  had  himself,  as  well  as  several  of  his  progenitors, 


KLOSTERHEIM.  175 

been  a  liberal  benefactor  to  tins  establishment.  And 
a  huly  of  his  house,  therefore,  recommended  by  a 
special  introduction  from  the  Emperor  to  the  attentions 
of  the  Lady  Abbess,  was  sure  of  meeting  kindness  and 
courtesy  in  every  possible  shape  which  could  avail  to 
mitigate  her  sorrow.  The  Abbess,  though  a  bigot, 
was  a  human  being,  with  strong  human  sensibilities  ; 
and  in  both  characters  she  was  greatly  pleased  with 
the  Lady  Paulina.  On  the  one  hand,  her  pride,  as 
the  head  of  a  religious  establishment,  was  flattered  by 
the  extreme  regularity  of  the  Lady  Paulina  in  con 
forming  to  the  ritual  of  her  house ;  this  example  of 
spiritual  obedience  and  duty  seemed  peculiarly  edify 
ing  in  a  person  of  such  distinguished  rank.  On  the 
other  hand,  her  womanly  sensibilities  were  touched  by 
the  spectacle  of  early  and  unmerited  sorrow  in  one  so 
eminent  for  her  personal  merits  —  for  her  extreme 
beauty,  and  the  winning  sweetness  of  her  manners. 
Hence  she  readily  offered  to  the  young  Countess  all 
the  attentions  and  marks  of  sympathy  which  her  re 
tiring  habits  permitted,  and  every  species  of  indulgence 
compatible  with  the  spirit  of  the  institution. 

The  whole  convent,  nuns  as  well  as  strangers, 
taking  their  tone  from  the  Abbess,  vied  with  each 
other  in  attentions  to  Paulina.  But,  whilst  acknowl 
edging  their  kindness,  she  continued  to  shrink  from 
all  general  intercourse  with  the  society  about  her. 
Her  attendance  was  constant  at  the  matins  and  at 


176  KLOSTERHEIM. 

vespers  ;  not  unfrequently  even  at  the  midnight  ser 
vice  ;  but  dejection  was  too  rooted  in  her  heart,  to 
allow  her  any  disposition  to  enter  into  the  amusements 
or  mixed  society  which  the  convent  at  that  time  of 
fered. 

Many  noble  strangers  had  been  allowed  to  take  up 
their  quarters  in  the  convent.  With  some  of  these 
the  Abbess  was  connected  by  blood,  with  others,  by 
ties  of  ancient  friendship.  Most  of  this  party  com 
posed  a  little  society  apart  from  the  rest,  and  continued 
to  pursue  those  amusements  or  occupations  which 
properly  belonged  to  their  stations  and  quality,  but  by 
their  too  worldly  nature,  were  calculated  to  exclude 
the  religious  members  of  the  institution  from  partaking 
in  them.  To  this  society,  Paulina  received  frequent 
invitations,  which,  however,  she  declined  so  uniformly, 
that  at  length  all  efforts  ceased  to  draw  her  from  the 
retirement  which  she  so  manifestly  adhered  to  from 
choice.  The  motives  of  her  dejection  became  known 
throughout  the  convent,  and  were  respected  ;  and  it 
was  now  reported  amongst  them,  from  her  aversion  to 
society  as  well  as  her  increasing  devotion,  that  the 
Lady  Paulina  would  soon  take  the  veil. 

Amongst  the  strangers  was  one,  a  lady  of  mature 
age,  with  beauty  still  powerful  enough  to  fascinate  all 
beholders,  who  seemed  to  survey  Paulina  with  an  in 
terest  far  beyond  that  of  curiosity  or  simple  admiration. 
Sorrow  might  be  supposed  the  common  bond  which 


KLOSTERI1F.I3I.  177 

connected  them  ;   for   there  were    minors  amongst  the 

rhood  of  St.  Agnes  that  this  lady  had  sull' 
afflictions  heavier  than  fell  to  an  ordinary  lot  in  the 
course  of  the  war  which  now  desolated  Germany. 
Her  husband,  (it  was  said,)  of  whom  no  more  was 
known  than  that  he  was  some  officer  of  high  rank,  had 
perished  by  the  hand  of  violence  ;  a  young  daughter, 
the  only  child  of  two  or  three  who  remained  to  her, 
had  been  carried  off  in  infancy  ;  and  no  traces  remain 
ed  of  her  subsequent  fate.  To  these  misfortunes  was 
added  the  loss  of  her  estates  and  rank,  which,  in  some 
mysterious  way,  were  supposed  to  be  withheld  from 
her  by  one  of  those  great  oppressors  whom  war  and 
the  policy  of  great  allies  had  aggrandized.  It  was 
supposed  even  that  for  the  means  of  subsistence  to  her 
self,  and  a  few  faithful  attendants,  she  was  indebted 
to  the  kindness  of  the  Lady  Abbess,  with  whom  she 
WKS  closely  connected  by  ancient  friendship. 

In  this  tale  there  were  many  inaccuracies  mixed  up 
with  the  truth.  It  was  true  that,  in  some  one  of  the 
many  dire  convulsions  which  had  passed  from  land  to 
land  since  the  first  outbreak  of  the  Bohemian  troubles, 
in  1618,  and  which  had  covered  with  a  veil  of  political 
pretexts  so  many  local  acts  of  private  family  feud  and 
murderous  treason,  this  lady  had  been  deprived  of  her 
husband  by  a  violent  death  under  circumstances  which 
still  seemed  mysterious.  But  the  fate  of  her  children, 
if  any  had  survived  the  calamity  which  took  off  her 
12 


178  KLOSTERI1EIM. 

husband,  was  unknown  to  everybody  except  her  con 
fidential  protectress  the  Lady  Abbess.  By  permission 
of  this  powerful  friend,  who  had  known  her  from 
infancy  and  through  the  whole  course  of  her  misfor 
tunes,  she  was  permitted  to  take  up  her  abode  in  the 
convent,  under  special  privileges,  and  was  there  known 
by  the  name  of  Sister  Madeline. 

The  intercourse  of  the  Sister  Madeline  with  the 
Lady  Abbess  was  free  and  unreserved.  At  all  hours 
they  entered  each  other's  rooms  with  the  familiarity  of 
sisters ;  and  it  might  have  been  thought  that  in  every 
respect  they  stood  upon  the  equal  footing  of  near  rela 
tives,  except  that  occasionally  in  the  manners  of  the 
Abbess  was  traced  or  imagined  a  secret  air  of  defer 
ence  towards  the  desolate  Sister  Madeline,  which,  as 
it  was  not  countenanced  at  all  by  their  present  rela 
tions  to  each  other,  left  people  at  liberty  to  build  upon 
it  a  large  superstructure  of  romantic  conjectures. 

Sister  Madeline  was  as  regular  in  her  attendance 
upon  prayers  as  Paulina.  There,  if  nowhere  else,  they 
were  sure  of  meeting ;  and  in  no  long  time  it  became 
evident  that  the  younger  lady  was  an  object  of  particu 
lar  interest  to  the  elder.  When  the  sublime  fugues  of 
the  old  composers  for  the  organ  swelled  upon  the  air, 
and  filled  the  vast  aisles  of  the  chapel  with  their  float 
ing  labyrinths  of  sound,  attention  to  the  offices  of  the 
church  service  being  suspended  for  the  time,  the  Sister 
Madeline  spent  the  interval  in  watching  the  countc- 


KLOSTERI1E1M.  179 

nance  of  Paulina.  Invariably  at  this  period  her  eyes 
settled  upon  the"  young  Countess,  and  appeared  to  court 
some  return  of  attention,  by  the  tender  sympathy  which 
her  own  features  expressed  with  the  grief  too  legibly 
inscribed  upon  Paulina's.  For  some  time  Paulina, 
absorbed  by  her  own  thoughts,  failed  to  notice  this  very 
particular  expression  of  attention  and  interest.  Accus 
tomed  to  the  gaze  of  crowds,  as  well  on  account  of  her 
beauty  as  her  connection  with  the  Imperial  house,  she 
found  nothing  new  or  distressing  in  this  attention  to 
herself.  After  some  time,  however,  observing  herself 
still  haunted  by  the  sister's  furtive  glances,  she  found 
her  own  curiosity  somewhat  awakened  in  return.  The 
manners  of  Sister  Madeline  were  too  dignified,  and  her 
face  expressed  too  much  of  profound  feeling,  and 
traces  too  inextinguishable  of  the  trials  through  which 
she  had  passed,  to  allow  room  for  any  belief  that  she 
was  under  the  influence  of  an  ordinary  curiosity. 
Paulina  was  struck  with  a  confused  feeling,  that  she 
looked  upon  features  which  had  already  been  familiar 
to  her  heart,  though  disguised  in  Sister  Madeline  by 
age,  by  sex,  and  by  the  ravages  of  grief;  she  had 
the  appearance  of  having  passed  her  fiftieth  year ;  but 
it  was  probable  that,  spite  of  a  brilliant  complexion, 
secret  sorrow  had  worked  a  natural  effect  in  giving  to 
her  the  appearance  of  age  more  advanced  by  seven  or 
eight  years  than  she  had  really  attained.  Time  at 
all  events,  if  it  had  carried  off  forever  her  youthful 


180  KLOSTERHEIM. 

graces,  neither  bad  nor  seemed  likely  to  destroy  the 
impression  of  majestic  beauty  under  eclipse  and 
wane.  No  one  could  fail  to  read  the  signs  by  which 
the  finger  of  nature  announces  a  great  destiny,  and  a 
mind  born  to  command. 

Insensibly  the  two  ladies  had  established  a  sort  of 
intercourse  by  looks  ;  and  at  length,  upon  finding  that 
the  Sister  Madeline  mixed  no  more  than  herself  in  the 
general  society  of  Klosterheim,  Paulina  had  resolved 
to  seek  the  acquaintance  of  a  lady  whose  deportment 
announced  that  she  would  prove  an  interesting  ac 
quaintance,  whilst  her  melancholy  story  and  the 
expression  of  her  looks  were  a  sort  of  pledges  that  she 
would  be  found  a  sympathizing  friend. 

She  had  already  taken  some  steps  towards  the  attain 
ment  of  her  wishes,  when  unexpectedly,  on  coming 
out  from  the  vesper  service,  the  Sister  Madeline  placed 
herself  by  the  side  of  Paulina,  and  they  walked  down 
one  of  the  long  side  aisles  together.  The  saintly 
memorials  about  them,  the  records  of  everlasting  peace 
which  lay  sculptured  at  their  feet,  and  the  strains 
which  still  ascended  to  heaven  from  the  organ  and  the 
white-robed  choir,  —  all  speaking  of  a  rest  from 
trouble  so  little  to  be  found  on  earth,  and  so  power 
fully  contrasting  with  the  desolations  of  poor  harassed 
Germany,  —  affected  them  deeply,  and  both  burst  into 
tears.  At  length  the  elderly  lady  spoke. 


KLOSTERHK1M.  1s! 

"  Daughter,  you  keep  your  faith  piously  with  him 
whom  you  suppose  drad." 

Paulina  started.     The  other  continued  — 

'•Honor  to  young  hearts  that  are  knit  together  by 
ties  so  firm  that  even  death  has  no  power  to  dissolve 
them  !  Honor  to  the  love  which  can  breed  so  deep  a 
sorrow  !  Yet,  even  in  this  world,  the  good  are  not 
always  the  unhappy.  I  doubt  not  that,  even  now  at 
vespers,  you  forgot  not  to  pray  for  him  that  would 
willingly  have  died  for  you." 

"  Oh,  gracious  lady !  when  —  when  have  I  forgot 
that?  What  other  prayer  —  what  other  image  —  is 
ever  at  my  heart  ?  " 

"  Daughter,  I  could  not  doubt  it ;  and  Heaven 
sometimes  sends  answers  to  prayers  when  they  are 
least  expected  ;  and  to  yours  it  sends  this  through 
me." 

With  these  words  she  stretched  out  a  letter  to  Pau 
lina,  who  fainted  with  sudden  surprise  and  delight  on 
recognizing  the  hand  of  Maximilian. 


182  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

IT  was  indeed  the  handwriting  of  her  lover  ;  and 
the  first  words  of  the  letter,  which  bore  a  recent  date, 
announced  his  safety  and  his  recovered  health.  A 
rapid  sketch  of  all  which  had  befallen  him  since  they 
had  last  parted,  informed  her  that  he  had  been  severely 
wounded  in  the  action  with  Holkerstein's  people,  and 
probably  to  that  misfortune  had  been  indebted  for  his 
life,  since  the  difficulty  of  transporting  him  on  horse 
back,  when  unable  to  sit  upright,  had  compelled  the 
party  charged  with  his  care  to  leave  him  for  the  night 
at  Waldenhausen.  From  that  place  he  had  been  car 
ried  off  in  the  night-time  to  a  small  Imperial  garrison 
in  the  neighborhood  by  the  care  of  two  faithful  ser 
vants,  who  had  found  little  difficulty  in  first  intoxicat 
ing,  and  then  overpowering,  the  small  guard  judged 
sufficient  for  a  prisoner  so  completely  disabled  by  his 
wounds.  In  this  garrison  he  had  recovered  ;  had  cor 
responded  with  Vienna  ;  had  concerted  measures  with 
the  Emperor  ;  and  was  now  on  the  point  of  giving 
full  effect  to  their  plans,  at  the  moment  when  certain 


KLOSTERHEI.M.  183 

circumstances  should  arise  to  favor  tin-  sclinno.  What 
these  were,  he  forbore  designedly  to  say  in  a  letter 
whi''.h  ran  some  risk  of  falling  into  the  enemy's  hands  ; 
but  he  bade  Paulina  speedily  to  expect  a  great  change 
for  the  better,  which  would  put  it  in  their  power  to 
meet  without  restraint  or  fear,  —  and  concluded  by 
giving  utterance  in  the  fondest  terms  to  a  lover's  hopes 
and  tenderest  anxieties. 

Paulina  had  scarcely  recovered  from  the  tumultuous 
sensations  of  pleasure,  and  sudden  restoration  to  hope, 
when  she  received  a  shock  in  the  opposite  direction, 
from  a  summons  to  attend  the  Landgrave.  The 
language  of  the  message  was  imperative,  and  more 
peremptory  than  had  ever  before  been  addressed  to 
herself,  a  lady  of  the  Imperial  family.  She  knew  the 
Landgrave's  character  and  his  present  position  :  both 
these  alarmed  her,  when  connected  with  the  style  and 
language  of  his  summons.  For  that  announced  dis 
tinctly  enough  that  his  resolution  had  been  now  taken 
to  commit  himself  to  a  bold  course,  no  longer  to  hang 
doubtfully  between  two  policies,  but  openly  to  throw 
himself  into  the  arms  of  the  Emperor's  enemies.  In 
one  view,  Paulina  found  a  benefit  to  her  spirits  from 
this  haughtiness  of  the  Landgrave's  message.  She 
was  neither  proud,  nor  apt  to  take  offence.  On  the 
contrary,  she  was  gentle  and  meek  ;  for  the  impulses 
of  youth  and  elevated  birth  had  in  her  been  chastened 
by  her  early  acquaintance  with  great  national  calami- 


184  KLOSTERHEIM. 

ties,  and  the  enlarged  sympathy  which  that  had  bred 
with  her  fellow-creatures  of  every  rank.  But  she  felt 
that,  in  this  superfluous  expression  of  authority,  the 
Landgrave  was  at  the  same  time  infringing  the  rights 
of  hospitality,  and  her  own  privileges  of  sex.  Indig 
nation  at  his  unmanly  conduct  gave  her  spirits  to  face 
him,  though  she  apprehended  a  scene  of  violence,  and 
had  the  more  reason  to  feel  the  trepidations  of  uncer 
tainty,  because  she  very  imperfectly  comprehended 
his  purposes  as  respected  herself. 

These  were  not  easily  explained.  She  found  the 
Landgrave  pacing  the  room  with  violence.  His  back 
was  turned  towards  her  as  she  entered  ;  but  as  the 
usher  announced  loudly  on  her  entrance,  "  The 
Countess  Paulina  of  Hohenhelder,"  he  turned  impetu 
ously,  and  advanced  to  meet  her.  With  the  Land 
grave,  however  irritated,  the  first  impulse  was  to 
comply  with  the  ceremonious  observances  that  be 
longed  to  his  rank.  He  made  a  cold  obeisance,  whilst 
an  attendant  placed  a  seat ;  and  then  motioning  to  all 
present  to  withdraw,  began  to  unfold  the  causes  which 
had  called  for  Lady  Paulina's  presence. 

So  much  art  was  mingled  with  so  much  violence, 
that  for  some  time  .Paulina  gathered  nothing  of  his 
real  purposes.  Resolved,  however,  to  do  justice  to 
her  own  insulted  dignity,  she  took  the  first  opening 
which  offered,  to  remonstrate  with  the  Landgrave  on 
the  needless  violence  of  his  summons.  His  Serene 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  185 

Highness  \vifldcd  the1  sword  in  Klostcrht-ini,  and  could 
have  no  reason  for  anticipating  resistance  to  his  com 
mands. 

"  The  Lady  Paulina  then  distinguishes  between  the 
r  and  the  right  ?  I  expected  as  much." 

"  By  no  means  ;  she  knew  nothing  of  the  claimants 
to  either.  She  was  a  stranger,  seeking  only  hospitality 
in  Klosterheimj  which  apparently  was  violated  by  un 
provoked  exertions  of  authority." 

"But  the  laws  of  hospitality,"  replied  the  Land 
grave,  "  press  equally  on  the  guest  and  the  host. 
Each  has  his  separate  duties.  And  the  Lady  Paulina, 
in  the  character  of  guest,  violated  her's  from  the  mo 
ment  when  she  formed  cabals  in  Klosterheim,  and 
ministered  to  the  fury  of  conspirators." 

"  Your  ear,  sir,  is  abused  ;  I  have  not  so  much  as 
stepped  beyond  the  precincts  of  the  convent  in  which 
I  reside,  until  this  day  in  paying  obedience  to  your 
Highness's  mandate." 

"  That  may  be  ;  and  that  may  argue  only  the  more 
caution  and  subtlety.  The  personal  presence  of  a 
lady,  so  distinguished  in  her  appearance  as  the  Lady 
Paulina,  at  any  resort  of  conspirators  or  intriguers, 
would  have  published  too  much  the  suspicions  to  which 
such  a  countenance  would  be  liable.  But  in  writing, 
have  you  dispersed  nothing  calculated  to  alienate  the 
attachment  of  my  subjects  ?  " 

The  Lady  Paulina  shook  her  head  ;   she  knew  not 


186  KLOSTERHEIM. 

even  in  what  direction  the  Landgrave's  suspicions 
pointed. 

"  As,  for  example,  this  —  does  the  Lady  Paulina 
recognize  this  particular  paper  ?  " 

Saying  this,  he  drew  forth  from  a  portfolio  a  letter 
or  paper  of  instructions,  consisting  of  several  sheets, 
to  which  a  large  official  seal  was  attached.  The 
Countess  glanced  her  eye  over  it  attentively  ;  in  one 
or  two  places  the  words  Maximilian  and  Klosterheim 
attracted  her  attention  ;  but  she  felt  satisfied  at  once 
that  she  now  saw  it  for  the  first  time. 

"  Of  this  paper,"  she  said  at  length,  in  a  determined 
tone,  "  I  know  nothing.  The  handwriting  I  believe  I 
may  have  seen  before.  It  resembles  that  of  one  of 
the  Emperor's  secretaries.  Beyond  that,  I  have  no 
means  of  even  conjecturing  its  origin." 

"  Beware,  madam,  beware  how  far  you  commit 
yourself.  Suppose,  now,  this  paper  were  actually 
brought  in  one  of  your  ladyship's  mails,  amongst  your 
own  private  property." 

"That  may  very  well  be,"  said  Lady  Paulina, 
"  and  yet  imply  no  falsehood  on  my  part.  False 
hood  !  1  disdain  such  an  insinuation  ;  your  Highness 
has  been  the  first  person  who  ever  dared  to  make  it." 
At  that  moment  she  called  to  mind  the  robbery  of  her 
carriage  at  Waldenhausen.  Coloring  deeply  with  in 
dignation,  she  added,  "  Even  in  the  case,  sir,  which 
you  have  supposed,  as  unconscious  bearer  of  this  or 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  187 

any  other  paper,  I  am  still  innocent  of  tlic  intentions 
which  such  an  act  might  argue  in  some  people.  I  am 
as  incapable  of  oifi'iiding  in  that  way,  as  I  shall  always 
be  of  disavowing  any  of  my  own  acts,  according  to 
your  ungenerous  insinuation.  But  now,  sir,  tell  me 
how  far  those  may  be  innocent  who  have  possessed 
themselves  of  a  paper  carried,  as  your  Highness 
alleges,  among  my  private  baggage  ?  Was  it  for  a 
Prince  to  countenance  a  robbery  of  that  nature,  or  to 
appropriate  its  spoils  ?  " 

The  blood  rushed  to  the  Landgrave's  temples.  "  In 
these  times,  young  lady,  petty  rights  of  individuals 
give  way  to  state  necessities.  Neither  are  there  any 
such  rights  of  individuals  in  bar  of  such  an  inquisi 
tion.  They  are  forfeited,  as  I  told  you  before,  when 
the  guest  forgets  his  duties.  "  But,"  (and  here  he 
frowned)  "  it  seems  to  me,  Countess,  that  you  are  now 
forgetting  your  situation  ;  not  I,  remember,  but  your 
self,  are  now  placed  on  trial." 

"  Indeed  !  "  said  the  Countess,  "  of  that  I  was  cer 
tainly  not  aware.  Who,  then,  is  my  accuser,  who  my 
judge  ?  Or  is  it  in  your  Serene  Highness  that  I  see 
both  ?  " 

"  Your  accuser,  Lady  Paulina,  is  the  paper  I  have 
shown  you,  a  treasonable  paper.  Perhaps  I  have  others 
to  bring  forward  of  the  same  bearing.  Perhaps  this  is 
sufficient." 

The  Lady  Paulina  grew  suddenly  sad  and  thoughtful. 


188  KLOSTERHEIM. 

Here  was  a  tyrant,  with  matter  against  her,  which, 
even  to  an  unprejudiced  judge,  might  really  wear  some 
face  of  plausibility.  The  paper  had,  perhaps,  really 
been  one  of  those  plundered  from  her  carriage.  It 
might  really  contain  matter  fitted  to  excite  disaffection 
against  the  Landgrave's  government.  Her  own  inno 
cence  of  all  participation  in  the  designs  which  it 
purported  to  abet  might  find  no  credit,  or  might  avail 
her  not  at  all  in  a  situation  so  far  removed  from  the 
Imperial  protection.  She  had  in  fact  unadvisedly 
entered  a  city  which,  at  the  time  of  her  entrance, 
might  be  looked  upon  as  neutral,  but  since  then  she 
had  been  forced  into  the  ranks  of  the  Emperor's  ene 
mies  too  abruptly  to  allow  of  warning  or  retreat,  This 
was  her  exact  situation.  She  saw  her  danger,  and 
again  apprehended  that,  at  the  very  moment  of  recov 
ering  her  lover  from  the  perils  besetting  his  situation, 
she  might  lose  him  by  the  perils  of  her  own. 

The  Landgrave  watched  the  changes  of  her  coun 
tenance,  and  read  her  thoughts. 

"  Yes,"  he  said  at  length,  "  your  situation  is  one  of 
peril.  But  take  courage.  Confess  freely,  and  you 
have  everything  to  hope  for  from  my  clemency." 

"  Such  clemency,"  said  a  deep  voice,  from  some 
remote  quarter  of  the  room,  "  as  the  wolf  shows  to 
the  lamb." 

Paulina  started,  and  the  Landgrave  looked  angry 
and  perplexed.  "  Within  there  !  "  he  cried  loudly  to 


KLOSTERTIEDI.  1$9 

his  attendants  in  the  next  room.  "  I  will  no  more 
endure  these  insults,"  ho  exclaimed.  "Go  instantly, 
take  a  file  of  soldiers  ;  place  them  at  all  the  outlets, 
and  search  the  rooms  adjoining — above  and  below. 
Such  mummery  is  insufferable." 

The  voice  replied  again,  "  Landgrave,  you  search 
in  vain.  Look -to  yourself!  young  Max  is  upon 
you  ! " 

''This  babbler,"  said  the  Landgrave,  making  an 
effort  to  recover  his  coolness,  "  reminds  me  well ;  that 
adventurer,  young  Maximilian  —  who  is  he,  whence 
comes  he  ?  by  whom  authorized  ?  " 

Paulina  blushed ;  but,  roused  by  the  Landgrave's 
contumelious  expressions  applied  to  her  lover,  she 
replied  —  "  He  is  no  adventurer  ;  nor  was  ever  in  that 
class ;  the  Emperor's  favor  is  not  bestowed  upon 
such." 

"  Then,  what  brings  him  to  Klosterheim  ?  For 
what  is  it  that  he  would  trouble  the  repose  of  this 
city  ?  " 

Before  Paulina  could  speak  in  rejoinder,  the  voice, 
from  a  little  further  distance,  replied  audibly  —  "For 
his  rights  !  See  that  you,  Landgrave,  make  no  resist 
ance." 

The  Prince  arose  in  fury ;  his  eyes  flashed  fire  ;  he 
clenched  his  hands  in  -impotent  determination.  The 
same  voice  had  annoyed  him  on  former  occasions, 
but  never  under  circumstances  which  mortified  him 


190  KLOSTERHE1M. 

so  deeply.  Ashamed  that  the  youthful  Countess 
should  be  a  witness  of  the  insults  put  upon  him,  and 
seeing  that  it  was  in  vain  to  pursue  his  conversation 
with  her  further  in  a  situation  which  exposed  him  to 
the  sarcasms  of  a  third  person,  under  no  restraint  of 
fear  or  partiality,  he  adjourned  the  further  prosecution 
of  his  inquiry  to  another  opportunity,  and  for  the  pres 
ent  gave  her  leave  to  depart ;  a  license  which  she 
gladly  availed  herself  of,  and  retired  in  fear  and  per 
plexity,  g? 


KLOSTERH!  191 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

IT  was  dark  as  Paulina  returned  to  her  convent. 
T\vo  servants  of  the  Landgrave's  preceded  her  with 
torches  to  the  great  gates  of  St.  Agnes,  which  was  at 
a.  very  short  distance.  At  that  point  she  entered  within 
the  shelter  of  the  convent  gates,  and  the  Prince's  ser 
vants  left  her  at  her  own  request.  No  person  was 
now  within  call  but  a  little  page  of  her  own,  and  per 
haps  the  porter  at  the  convent.  But  after  the  first 
turn  in  the  garden  of  St.  Agnes,  she  might  almost 
consider  herself  as  left  to  her  own  guardianship  ;  for 
the  little  boy  who  followed  her  was  too  young  to  afford 
her  any  effectual  help.  She  felt  sorry,  as  she  sur 
veyed  the  long  avenue  of  ancient  trees,  which  was 
yet  to  be  traversed  before  she  entered  upon  the  clois 
ters,  that  she  should  have  dismissed  the  servants  of 
the  Landgrave.  These  gardens  were  easily  scaled 
from  the  outside,  and  a  ready  communication  existed 
between  the  remotest  parts  of  this  very  avenue,  and 
some  of  the  least  reputable  parts  of  Kiosterheim.  The 
city  now  overflowed  with  people  of  every  rank ;  and 
amongst  them  were  continually  recognized,  and  occa- 


192  KLOSTERHEIM. 

sionally  challenged,  some  of  the  vilest  deserters  from 
the  Imperial  camps.  Wallenstein  himself,  and  other 
Imperial  commanders,  but,  above  all,  Hoik,  had 
attracted  to  their  standards  the  very  refuse  of  the 
German  jails ;  and  allowing  an  unlimited  license  of 
plunder  during  some  periods  of  their  career,  had 
themselves  evoked  a  fiendish  spirit  of  lawless  ag 
gression  and  spoliation,  which  afterwards  they  had 
found  it  impossible  to  exorcise  within  its  former  limits. 
People  were  everywhere  obliged  to  be  on  their  guard, 
not  alone  (as  heretofore)  against  the  military  tyrant  or 
freebooter,  but  also  against  the  private  servants  whom 
they  hired  into  their  service.  For  some  time  back, 
suspicious  persons  had  been  seen  strolling  at  dusk  in 
the  gardens  of  St.  Agnes,  or  even  intruding  into  the 
cloisters.  Then  the  recollection  of  The  Masque,  now 
in  the  very  height  of  his  mysterious  career,  flashed 
upon  Paulina's  thoughts.  Who  knew  his  motives,  or 
the  principles  of  his  mysterious  warfare  —  which  at 
any  rate,  in  its  mode,  had  latterly  been  marked  by 
bloodshed  ?  As  these  things  came  rapidly  into  her 
mind,  she  trembled  more  from  fear  than  from  the 
wintry  wind,  which  now  blew  keenly  and  gustily 
through  the  avenue. 

The  gardens  of  St.  Agnes  were  extensive,  and 
Paulina  yet  wanted  two  hundred  yards  of  reaching 
the  cloisters,  when  she  observed  a  dusky  object  steal 
ing  along  the  margin  of  a  little  pool,  which  in  parts 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  193 

lay  open  to  the  walk,  whilst  in  others,  where  the  walk 
receded  from  the  water,  the  banks  were  studded  with 
thickets  of  tall  shrubs.  Paulina  stopped  and  observed 
the  figure,  which  she  was  soon  satisfied  must  be  that 
of  a  man.  At  times  he  rose  to  his  full  height ;  at 
times  he  cowered  downwards  amongst  the  bushes. 
That  he  was  not  merely  seeking  a  retreat,  became 
evident  from  this,  that  the  best  road  for  such  a  purpose 
lay  open  to  him  in  the  opposite  direction;  —  that  he 
was  watching  herself,  also,  became  probable  from  the 
way  in  which  he  seemed  to  regulate  his  own  motions 
by  her's.  At  length,  whilst  Paulina  hesitated  in  some 
perplexity  whether  to  go  forward  or  to  retreat  towards 
the  porter's  lodge,  he  suddenly  plunged  into  the  thick 
est  belt  of  shrubs,  and  left  the  road  clear.  Paulina 
seized  the  moment,  and  with  a  palpitating  heart  quick 
ened  her  steps  towards  the  cloister. 

She  had  cleared  about  one-half  of  the  way  without 
obstruction,  when  suddenly  a  powerful  grasp  seized 
her  by  the  shoulder. 

"  Stop,  lady !  "  said  a  deep,  coarse  voice,  "  stop ! 
I  mean  no  harm.  Perhaps  I  bring  your  ladyship  what 
will  be  welcome  news." 

"  But  why  here  ? "  exclaimed  Paulina  ;  "  wherefore 
do  you  alarm  me  thus  ?  Oh  !  heavens !  your  eyes  are 
wild  and  fierce  ;  say,  is  it  money  that  you  want  ?  " 

"  Perhaps  I  do.     To  the  like  of  me,  lady,  you  may 
be  sure  that  money  never  comes  amiss ;  —  but  that  is 
13 


194  KLOSTERIIEIM. 

not  my  errand.  Here  is  what  will  make  all  clear;" 
and,  as  he  spoke,  he  thrust  his  hand  into  the  huge 
pocket  within  the  horseman's  cloak  which  enveloped 
him.  Instead  of  the  pistol  or  dag,  which  Paulina 
anticipated,  he  drew  forth  a  large  packet,  carefully 
sealed.  Paulina  felt  so  much  relieved  at  beholding 
this  pledge  of  the  man's  pacific  intentions,  that  she 
eagerly  pressed  her  purse  into  his  hand,  and  was 
hastening  to  leave  him,  when  the  man  stopped  her  to 
deliver  a  verbal  message  from  his  master,  requesting 
earnestly  that,  if  she  concluded  to  keep  the  .  appoint 
ment  arranged  in  the  letter,  she  would  not  be  a  minute 
later  than  the  time  fixed. 

"  And  who,"  said  Paulina,  "  is  your  master  ?  " 
"  Surely  the  General,  madam  —  the  young  General 
Maximilian.  Many  a  time  and  oft  have  I  waited  on 
him  when  visiting  your  ladyship  at  the  Wartebrunn. 
But  here  I  dare  not  show  my  face.  Der  Henker ! 
if  the  Landgrave  knew  that  Michael  Klotz  was  in 
Klosterheim,  I  reckon  that  all  the  ladies  in  St.  Agnes 
could  not  beg  him  a  reprieve  till  to-morrow  morning." 
"  Then,  villain ! "  said  the  foremost  of  two  men 
who  rushed  hastily  from  the  adjoining  shrubs,  "  be 
assured  that  the  Landgrave  does  know  it.  Let  this  be 
your  warrant !  "  With  these  words  he  fired,  and, 
immediately  after,  his  comrade.  Whether  the  fugitive 
were  wounded  could  not  be  known ;  for  he  instantly 
plunged  into  the  water,  and,  after  two  or  three  mo- 


KLOSTERIIKIM.  195 

ments,  was  heard  upon  the  opposite  margin.  His 
pursuers  seemed  to  shrink  from  this  attempt,  for  they 
divided  and  took  the  opposite  extremities  of  the  pool, 
from  the  other  bank  of  which  they  were  soon  heard 
animating  and  directing  each  other  through  the  dark 
ness. 

Paulina,  confused  and  agitated,  and  anxious  above 
all  to  examine  her  letters,  took  the  opportunity  of  a 
clear  road,  and  fled  in  trepidation  to  the  convent. 


196  KLOSTERHEIJVI. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  Countess  had  brought  home  with  her  a  double 
subject  of  anxiety.  She  knew  not  to  what  result  the 
Landgrave's  purposes  were  tending  ;  she  feared,  also, 
from  this  sudden  and  new  method  of  communication 
opened  with  herself  so  soon  after  his  previous  letter, 
that  some  unexpected  bad  fortune  might  now  be  threat 
ening  her  lover.  Hastily  she  tore  open  the  packet, 
which  manifestly  contained  something  larger  than  let 
ters.  The  first  article  which  presented  itself  was  a 
nun's  veil,  exactly  on  the  pattern  of  those  worn  by  the 
nuns  of  St.  Agnes.  The  accompanying  letter  suffic 
iently  explained  its  purpose. 

It  was  in  the  handwriting,  and  bore  the  signature,  of 
Maximilian.  In  a  few  words  he  told  her  that  a  sud 
den  communication,  but  from  a  quarter  entirely  to  be 
depended  on,  had  reached  him  of  a  great  danger  im 
pending  over  her  from  the  Landgrave  ;  that  in  the  pres 
ent  submission  of  Klosterheim  to  that  Prince's  will, 
instant  flight  presented  the  sole  means  of  delivering 
her  ;  for  which  purpose  he  would  himself  meet  her  in 


KLOSTERHEIM.  197 

disguise  on  the  following  morning,  as  early  as  four 
o'clock  ;  or,  if  that  should  prove  impossible  under  the 
circumstances  of  the  case,  would  send  a  faithful  ser 
vant  :  —  that  one  or  other  of  them  would  attend  at  a 
particular  station,  easily  recognized  by  the  description 
added,  in  a  ruinous  part  of  the  boundary  wall,  in  the 
rear  of  the  convent  garden.  A  large  travelling  cloak 
would  be  brought  to  draw  over  the  rest  of  her  dress  ; 
but  meanwhile,  as  a  means  of  passing  unobserved 
through  the  convent  grounds,  where  the  Landgrave's 
agents  were  continually  watching  her  motions,  the 
nun's  veil  was  almost  indispensable.  The  other  cir 
cumstances  of  the  journey  would  be  communicated  to 
her  upon  meeting.  In  conclusion,  the  writer  implored 
Paulina  to  suffer  no  scruples  of  false  delicacy  to  with 
hold  her  from  a  step  which  had  so  suddenly  become 
necessary  to  her  preservation  ;  and  cautioned  her  par 
ticularly  against  communicating  her  intentions  to  the 
Lady  Abbess,  whose  sense  of  decorum  might  lead  her 
to  urge  advice  at  this  moment  inconsistent  with  her 
safety. 

Again  and  again  did  Paulina  read  this  agitating  let 
ter  ;  again  and  again  did  she  scrutinize  the  handwriting, 
apprehensive  that  she  might  be  making  herself  a 
dupe  to  some  hidden  enemy.  The  handwriting,  un 
doubtedly,  had  not  all  the  natural  freedom  which 
characterized  that  of  Maximilian  —  it  was  somewhat 
stiff  in  its  movement,  but  not  more  so  than  that  of  his 


198  KLOSTERHEIM. 

previous  letter,  in  which  he  had  accounted  for  the 
slight  change  from  a  wound  not  perfectly  healed  in 
his  right  hand.  In  other  respects,  the  letter  seemed 
liable  to  no  just  suspicion.  The  danger  apprehended 
from  the  Landgrave  tallied  with  her  own  knowledge. 
The  convent  grounds  were  certainly  haunted,  as  the 
letter  alleged,  by  the  Landgrave's  people,  —  of  that 
she  had  just  received  a  convincing  proof ;  for,  though 
the  two  strangers  had  turned  off  in  pursuit  of  the  mes 
senger  who  bore  Maximilian's  letter,  yet  doubtless 
their  original  object  of  attention  had  been  herself ;  they 
were  then  posted  to  watch  her  motions,  and  they  had 
avowed  themselves  in  effect  the  Landgrave's  people. 
That  part  of  the  advice,  again,  which  respected  the 
Lady  Abbess,  seemed  judicious,  on  considering  the 
character  of  that  lady,  however  much  at  first  sight 
it  might  warrant  some  jealousy  of  the  writer's  purposes, 
to  find  him  warning  her  against  her  best  friends.  After 
all,  what  most  disturbed  the  confidence  of  Paulina 
was  the  countenance  of  the  man  who  presented  the 
letter ;  if  this  man  were  to  be  the  representative  of 
Maximilian  on  the  following  morning,  she  felt,  and  was 
persuaded  that  she  would  continue  to  feel,  an  invincible 
repugnance  to  commit  her  safety  to  any  such  keeping. 
Upon  the  whole,  she  resolved  to  keep  the  appointment, 
but  to  be  guided  in  her  further  conduct  by  circum 
stances  as  they  should  arise  at  the  moment. 

That  night  Paulina's  favorite  female  attendant  em- 


KLOSTERIIKIIM.  199 

ployed  herself  in  putting  into  as  small  a  coni[>;i- 
possible  the  slender  wardrobe  which  they  would  be 
able  to  carry  with  them.  The  young  Countess  herself 
spent  the  hours  in  writing  to  the  Lady  Abbess  and 
Sister  Madeline,  acquainting  them  with  all  the  circum 
stances  of  her  interview  with  the  Landgrave,  —  the 
certain  grounds  she  had  for  apprehending  some  great 
danger  in  that  quarter,  —  and  the  proposals  so  unex 
pectedly  made  to  her  on  the  part  of  Maximilian  for 
evading  it.  To  ask  that  they  should  feel  no  anxiety 
on  her  account,  in  times  which  made  even  a  successful 
escape  from  danger  so  very  hazardous,  she  acknowl 
edged  would  be  in  vain  ;  but,  in  judging  of  the  degree 
of  prudence  which  she  had  exhibited  on  this  occasion, 
she  begged  them  to  reflect  on  the  .certain  dangers 
which  awaited  her  from  the  Landgrave  ;  and  finally, 
in  excuse  for  not  having  sought  the  advice  of  so  dear 
a  friend  as  the  Lady  Abbess,  she  enclosed  the  letter 
upon  which  she  had  acted. 

These  preparations  were  completed  by  midnight, 
after  which  Paulina  sought  an  hour  or  two  of  repose. 
At  three  o'clock  were  celebrated  the  early  matins,  at 
tended  by  the  devouter  part  of  the  sisterhood,  in  the 
chapel.  Paulina  and  her  maid  took  this  opportunity 
for  leaving  their  chamber,  and  slipping  unobserved 
amongst  the  crowd  who  were  hurrying  on  that  sum 
mons  into  the  cloisters.  The  organ  was  pealing 
solemnly  through  the  labyrinth  of  passages  which  led 


200  KLOSTERHEIM. 

from  the  interior  of  the  convent ;  and  Paulina's  eyes 
were  suffused  with  tears,  as  the  gentler  recollections 
of  her  earlier  days,  and  the  peace  which  belongs  to 
those  who  have  abjured  this  world  and  its  treacherous 
promises,  arose  to  her  mind,  under  the  influence  of 
the  sublime  music,  in  powerful  contrast  with  the  tem 
pestuous  troubles  of  Germany  —  now  become  so  com 
prehensive  in  their  desolating  sweep,  as  to  involve 
even  herself,  and  others  of  station  as  elevated. 


KLOSTEKHEIM  201 


CHAPTER   XXL 

THE  convent  clock,  chiming  the  quarters,  at  length 
announced  that  they  had  reached  the  appointed  hour. 
Trembling  with  fear  and  cold,  though  muffled  up  in 
furs,  Paulina  and  her  attendant,  with  their  nuns'  veils 
drawn  over  their  head-dress,  sallied  forth  into  the 
garden.  All  was  profoundly  dark,  and  overspread 
with  the  stillness  of  the  grave.  The  lights  within  the 
chapel  threw  a  rich  glow  through  the  painted  window  ; 
and  here  and  there,  from  a  few  scattered  casements  in 
the  vast  pile  of  St.  Agnes,  streamed  a  few  weak  rays 
from  a  taper  or  a  lamp,  indicating  the  trouble  of  a 
sick-bed,  or  the  peace  of  prayer.  But  these  rare  lights 
did  but  deepen  the  massy  darkness  of  all  beside  ;  and 
Paulina,  with  her  attendant,  had  much  difficulty  in 
making  her  way  to  the  appointed  station.  Having 
reached  the  wall,  however,  they  pursued  its  windings, 
certain  of  meeting  no  important  obstacles,  until  they 
attained  a  part  where  their  progress  was  impeded  by 
frequent  dilapidations.  Here  they  halted,  and  in  low 
tones  communicated  their  doubts  about  the  precise 


202  KLOSTERHEIM. 

locality  of  the  station  indicated  in  the  letter,  when 
suddenly  a  man  started  up  from  the  ground,  and 
greeted  them  with  the  words,  "  St.  Agnes  !  all  is 
right,"  which  had  been  preconcerted  as  the  signal  in 
the  letter.  This  man  was  courteous  and  respectful  in 
his  manner  of  speaking,  and  had  nothing  of  the  ruffian 
voice  which  belonged  to  the  bearer  of  the  letter.  In 
rapid  terms  he  assured  Paulina,  that  "  the  Young 
General  "  had  not  found  circumstances  favorable  for 
venturing  within  the  walls,  but  that  he  would  meet  her 
a  few  miles  beyond  the  city  gates  ;  and  that  at  present 
they  had  no  time  to  lose.  Saying  this,  he  unshaded  a 
dark  lantern.,  which  showed  them  a  ladder  of  ropes, 
attached  to  the  summit  of  a  wall,  which  at  this  point 
was  too  low  to  occasion  them  much  uneasiness  or  diffi 
culty  in  ascending.  But  Paulina  insisted  previously 
on  hearing  something  more  circumstantial  of  the  man 
ner  and  style  of  their  escape  from  the  city  walls,  and 
in  what  company  their  journey  would  be  performed. 
The  man  had  already  done  something  to  conciliate 
Paulina's  confidence  by  the  propriety  of  his  address, 
which  indicated  a  superior  education,  and  habits  of  in 
tercourse  with  people  of  rank.  He  explained  as  much 
of  the  plan  as  seemed  necessary  for  the  immediate 
occasion.  A  convoy  of  arms  and  military  stores  was 
leaving  the  city  for  the  post  at  Falkenstein.  Several 
carriages,  containing  privileged  persons,  to  whom  the 
Landgrave  or  his  minister  had  granted  a  license, 


KLOSTERHEIM.  203 

were  taking  the  benefit  of  an  escort  over  the  forest ; 
and  a  bribe  in  the  proper  quarter  had  easily  obtained 
permission,  from  the  officer  on  duty  at  the  gates,  to 
suffer  an  additional  carriage  to  pass  as  one  in  a  great 
lady's  suite,  on  the  simple  condition  that  it  should  con 
tain  none  but  females  ;  as  persons  of  that  sex  were 
liable  to  no  suspicion  of  being  fugitives  from  the  wrath 
which  was  now  supposed  ready  to  descend  upon  the 
conspirators  against  the  Landgrave. 

This  explanation  reconciled  Paulina  to  the  scheme. 
She  felt  cheered  by  the  prospect  of  having  other  ladies 
to  countenance  the  mode  of  her  nocturnal  journey ; 
and  at  the  worst,  hearing  this  renewed  mention  of  con 
spirators  and  punishment,  which  easily  connected  itself 
with  all  that  had  passed  in  her  interview  with  the 
Landgrave,  she  felt  assured,  at  any  rate,  that  the 
dangers  she  fled  from,  transcended  any  which  she  was 
likely  to  incur  upon  her  route.  Her  determination 
was  immediately  taken.  She  passed  over  the  wall 
with  her  attendant ;  and  they  found  themselves  in  a 
narrow  lane,  close  to  the  city  walls,  with  none  but  a 
few  ruinous  outhouses  on  either  side.  A  low  whistle 
from  the  man  was  soon  answered  by  the  rumbling  of 
wheels  ;  and  from  some  distance,  as  it  seemed,  a  sort 
of  caleche  advanced,  drawn  by  a  pair  of  horses. 
Paulina  and  her  attendant  stepped  hastily  in,  for  at  the 
very  moment  when  the  carriage  drew  up,  a  signal  gun 
was  heard  ;  which,  as  their  guide  assured  them,  pro- 


204  KLOSTERHEIM. 

claimed  that  the  escort  and  the  whole  train  of  carriages 
were  at  that  moment  defiling  from  the  city  gate.  The 
driver,  obeying  the  directions  of  the  other  man,  drove 
off  as  rapidly  as  the  narrow  road  and  the  darkness 
would  allow.  A  few  turns  brought  them  into  the 
great  square  in  front  of  the  schloss  ;  from  which,  a  few 
more  open  streets,  traversed  at  full  gallop,  soon  brought 
them  into  the  rear  of  the  convoy,  which  had  been  un 
expectedly  embarrassed  in  its  progress  to  the  gate. 
From  the  rear,  by  dexterous  management,  they  grad 
ually  insinuated  themselves  into  the  centre ;  and, 
contrary  to  their  expectations,  amongst  the  press  of 
baggage-wagons,  artillery,  and  travelling  equipages,  all 
tumultuously  clamoring  to  push  on,  as  the  best  chance 
of  evading  Holkerstein  in  the  forest,  their  own  unpre 
tending  vehicle  passed  without  other  notice  than  a 
curse  from  the  officer  on  duty  ;  which,  however,  they 
could  not  presume  to  appropriate,  as  it  might  be  sup 
posed  equitably  distributed  amongst  all  who  stopped 
the  road  at  the  moment. 

Paulina  shuddered  as  she  looked  out  upon  the  line 
of  fierce  faces,  illuminated  by  the  glare  of  torches, 
and  mingling  with  horses'  heads,  and  the  gleam  of 
sabres  ;  all  around  her,  the  roar  of  artillery  wheels  ; 
above  her  head,  the  vast  arch  of  the  gates,  its  broad 
massy  shadows  resting  below ;  and  in  the  vista  beyond, 
which  the  archway  defined,  a  mass  of  blackness  in  which 
she  rather  imagined  than  saw  the  interminable  soli- 


XLOSTERHEIM.  205 

tudcs  of  the  forest.  Soon  the  gate  was  closed  ;  their 
own  carriain'  passc-.l  the  tardier  parts  of  the  convoy  ; 
and,  with  a  dozen  or  two  of  others,  surrounded  by  a 
squadron  of  dragoons,  headed  the  train.  Happy 
beyond  measure  at  the  certainty  that  she  had  now 
cleared  the  gates  of  Klosterheim,  that  she  was  in 
the  wide  open  forest  —  free  from  a  detested  tyrant, 
and  on  the  same  side  of  the  gates  as  her  lover,  who 
was  doubtless  advancing  to  meet  her  —  she  threw 
herself  back  in- the  carriage,  and  resigned  herself  to  a 
slumber,  which  the  anxieties  and  watchings  of  the 
night  had  made  more  than  usually  welcome. 

The  city  clocks  were  now  heard  in  the  forest,  sol 
emnly  knelling  out  the  hour  of  four.  Hardly,  how 
ever,  had  Paulina  slept  an  hour,  when  she  was  gently 
awakened  by  her  attendant  —  who  had  felt  it  to  be  her 
duty  to  apprise  her  lady  of  the  change  which  had 
occurred  in  their  situation.  They  had  stopped,  it 
seemed,  to  attach  a  pair  of  leaders  to  their  wheel 
horses  ;  and  were  now  advancing  at  a  thundering 
pace,  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  convoy,  and  sur 
rounded  by  a  small  escort  of  cavalry.  The  darkness 
was  still  intense  ;  and  the  lights  of  Klosterheim,  which 
the  frequent  windings  of  the  road  brought  often  into 
view,  were  at  this  moment  conspicuously  seen.  The 
castle,  from  its  commanding  position,  and  the  convent 
of  St.  Agnes,  were  both  easily  traced  out  by  means  of 
the  lights  gleaming  from  their  long  ranges  of  upper 


206  KLOSTERHEIM. 

windows.  A  particular  turret,  which  sprang  to  an 
almost  aerial  altitude  above  the  rest  of  the  building,  in 
which  it  was  generally  reported  that  the  Landgrave 
slept,  was  more  distinguishable  than  any  other  part  of 
Klosterheim,  from  one  brilliant  lustre  which  shot  its 
rays  through  a  large  oriel  window.  There  at  this  mo 
ment  was  sleeping  that  unhappy  prince,  tyrannical  and 
self-tormenting,  whose  unmanly  fears  had  menaced 
her  own  innocence  with  so  much  indefinite  danger; 
whom,  in  escaping,  she  knew  not  if  she  had  escaped  ; 
and  whose  snares,  as  a  rueful  misgiving  began  to  sug 
gest,  were  perhaps  gathering  faster  about  her,  with 
every  echo  which  the*  startled  forest  returned  to  the 
resounding  tread  of  their  flying  cavalcade.  She  leaned 
back  again  in  the  carriage  ;  again  she  fell  asleep  ; 
again  she  dreamed.  But  her  sleep  was  unrefreshing  ; 
her  dreams  were  agitated,  confused,  and  haunted  by 
terrific  images.  And  she  awoke  repeatedly  with  her 
cheerful  anticipation,  continually  decaying,  of  speedily 
(perhaps  ever  again)  rejoining  her  gallant  Maximilian. 
There  was  indeed  yet  a  possibility  that  she  might  be 
under  the  superintending  care  of  her  lover.  But  she 
secretly  felt  that  she  was  betrayed.  And  she  wept 
when  she  reflected  that  her  own  precipitance  had 
facilitated  the  accomplishment  of  the  plot  which  had 
perhaps  forever  ruined  her  happiness. 


KLOSTERHEIM,  207 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

MEANTIME,  Paulina  awoke  from  the  troubled  slum 
bers  into  which  her  fatigues  had  thrown  her,  to  find 
herself  still  flying  along  as  rapidly  as  four  powerful 
horses  could  draw  their  light  burden,  and  still  escorted 
by  a  considerable  body  of  the  Landgrave's  dragoons. 
She  was  undoubtedly  separated  from  all  the  rest  of  the 
convoy,  with  whom  she  had  left  Klosterheim.  It  was 
now  apparent,  even  to  her  humble  attendant,  that  they 
were  betrayed  ;  and  Paulina  reproached  herself  with 
having  voluntarily  co-operated  with  her  enemy's  strat 
agems.  Certainly  the  dangers  from  which  she  fled 
were  great  and  imminent  ;  yet  still,  in  Klosterheim, 
she  derived  some  protection  from  the  favor  of  the 
Lady  Abbess.  That  lady  had  great  powers  of  a  legal 
nature  throughout  the  city,  and  still  greater  influence 
with  a  Roman  Catholic  populace  at  this  particular 
period,  when  their  Prince  had  laid  himself  open  to 
suspicions  of  favoring  Protestant  allies  ;  and  Paulina 
bitterly  bewailed  the  imprudence,  which,  in  removing 
her  from  the  convent  of  St.  Agnes,  had  removed  her 
from  her  only  friends. 


208  KLOSTERHEIM. 

It  was  about  noon,  when  the  party  halted  at  a  soli 
tary  house  for  rest  and  refreshments.  Paulina  had 
heard  nothing  of  the  route  which  they  had  hitherto 
taken,  nor  did  she  find  it  easy  to  collect,  from  the  short 
and  churlish  responses  of  her  escort  to  the  few  ques 
tions  she  had  yet  ventured  to  propose,  in  what  direc 
tion  their  future  advance  would  proceed.  A  hasty 
summons  bade  her  alight ;  and  a  few  steps,  under  the 
guidance  of  a  trooper,  brought  her  into  a  little  gloomy 
wainscoted  room,  where  some  refreshments  had  been 
already  spread  upon  a  table.  Adjoining  was  a  small 
bed-room.  And  she  was  desired,  with  something  more 
of  civility  than  she  had  yet  experienced,  to  consider 
both  as  allotted  for  the  use  of  herself  and  servant 
during  the  time  of  their  stay,  which  was  expected,  how 
ever,  not  to  exceed  the  two  or  three  hours  requisite  for 
resting  the  horses. 

But  that  was  an  arrangement  which  depended  as 
much  upon  others  as  themselves.  And  in  fact  a  small 
party,  whom  the  main  body  of  the  escort  had  sent  on 
to  patrol  the  roads  in  advance,  soon  returned  with  the 
unwelcome  news  that  a  formidable  corps  of  Imperial 
ists  were  out  reconnoitring  in  a  direction  which  might 
probably  lead  them  across  their  own  line  of  march,  in 
the  event  of  their  proceeding  instantly.  The  orders 
already  issued  for  advance  were  therefore  counter 
manded  ;  and  a  resolution  was  at  length  adopted  by 


KLOSTERHEIM.  209 

the  leader  of  the  party  for  taking  up  their  abode  during 
the  night  in  their  present  very  tolerable  quarters. 

Paulina,  wearied  and  dejected,  and  recoiling  natu 
rally  from  the  indefinite  prospects  of  danger  before 
her,  was  not  the  least  rejoiced  at  this  change  in  the 
original  plan,  by  which  she  benefited  at  any  rate  to  the 
extent  of  a  quiet  shelter  for  one  night  more,  a  blessing 
which  the  next  day's  adventures  might  deny  her,  and 
still  more  by  that  postponement  of  impending  evil 
which  is  so  often  welcome  to  the  very  firmest  minds, 
when  exhausted  by  toil  and  affliction.  Having  this 
certainty,  however,  of  one  night's  continuance  in  her 
present  abode,  she  requested  to  have  the  room  made  a 
little  more  comfortable  by  the  exhilarating  blaze  of  a 
fire.  For  this  indulgence  there,  were  the  principal 
requisites  in  a  hearth  and  spacious  chimney.  And  an 
aged  crone,  probably  the  sole  female  servant  upon  the 
premises,  speedily  presented  herself  with  a  plentiful 
supply  of  wood,  and  the  two  supporters,  or  andirons 
(as  they  were  formerly  called),  for  raising  the  billets 
so  as  to  allow  the  air  to  circulate  from  below.  There 
was  some  difficulty  at  first  in  kindling  the  wood  ;  and 
the  old  servant  resorted  once  or  twice,  after  some  little 
apologetic  muttering  of  doubts  with  herself,  to  a  closet, 
containing,  as  Paulina  could  observe,  a  considerable 
body  of  papers. 

The    fragments    which  she   left  remained    strewed 
upon  the  ground  :  and  Paulina,  taking  them  up  with  a 
14 


210  KLOSTERHEIM. 

careless  air,  was  suddenly  transfixed  with  astonishment 
on  observing  that  they  were  undoubtedly  in  a  hand 
writing  familiar  to  her  eye  —  the  handwriting  of  the 
most  confidential  amongst  the  Imperial  secretaries. 
Other  recollections  now  rapidly  associated  themselves 
together,  which  led  her  hastily  to  open  the  closet  door  ; 
and  there,  as  she  had  already  half  expected,  she  saw 
the  travelling  mail  stolen  from  her  own  carriage,  its 
lock  forced,  and  the  remaining  contents  (for  every 
thing  bearing  a  money  value  had  probably  vanished 
on  its  first  disappearance)  lying  in  confusion.  Having 
made  this  discovery,  she  hastily  closed  the  door  of  the 
closet,  resolved  to  prosecute  her  investigations  in  the 
night-time;  but  at  present,  when  she  was  liable  to 
continual  intrusions,  to  give  no  occasion  for  those  sus 
picions,  which,  once  aroused,  might  end  in  baffling  her 

design. 

Meantime  she  occupied  herself  in  conjectures  upon 

the  particular  course  of  accident  which  could  have 
brought  the  trunk  and  papers  into  the  situation  where 
she  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  find  them.  And 
with  the  clue  already  in  her  possession,  she  was  not 
long  in  making  another  discovery  ;  she  had  previously 
felt  some  dim  sense  of  recognition,  as  her  eyes  wan 
dered  over  the  room  ;  but  had  explained  it  away  into 
some  resemblance  into  one  or  other  of  the  many 
strange  scenes  which  she  had  passed  through  since 
leaving  Vienna.  But  now,  on  retracing  the  furniture 


KLOSTKRIIEIM.  211 

and  aspect  of  the  two  rooms,  she  was  struck  with  her 
own  inattention,  in  not  having  sooner  arrived  at  the 
discovery,  that  it  was  their  old  quarters  of  Walden- 
hausen,  the  very  place  in  which  the  robbery  had  been 
effected,  where  they  had  again  the  prospect  of  spend 
ing  the  night,  and  of  recovering  in  part  the  loss  she 
had  sustained. 

Midnight  came,  and  the  Lady  Paulina  prepared  to 
avail  herself  of  her  opportunities.     She  drew  out  the 
parcel  of  papers,  which  was  large  and  miscellaneous 
in  its  contents.     By  far  the  greater  part,  as  she  was 
happy  to  observe,  were  mere  copies  of  originals  in  the 
chancery  at  Vienna  ;  those  related  to  the  civic  affairs 
of  Klosterheim,  and  were  probably  of  a  nature  not  to 
have  been  acted  upon  during  the  predominance  of  the 
Swedish  interest  in  the  counsels  and  administration  of 
that  city.     With  the  revival  of  the  Imperial  cause,  no 
doubt  these  orders  would  be  repeated,  and  with  the 
modifications  which  new  circumstances,  and  the  pro 
gress  of  events,  would  then  have  rendered  expedient. 
This  portion  of  the  papers,  therefore,  Paulina  willingly 
restored  to  their  situation  in  the  closet.    No  evil  would 
arise  to  any  party  from  their  present  detention  in  a 
place  where  they  were  little  likely  to  attract  notice 
from  any  body,  but  the  old  lady  in  her  ministries  upon 
the  fire.     Suspicion  would  be  also  turned  aside  from 
herself  in  appropriating  the  few  papers  which  remained. 
These  contained  too  frequent  mention  of  a  name  dear 


212  KLOSTERHEIM. 

to  herself,  not  to  have  a  considerable  value  in  her 
eyes  ;  she  was  resolved,  if  possible,  to  carry  them  off 
by  concealing  them  within  her  bosom ;  but  at  all 
events,  in  preparation  for  any  misfortune  that  might 
ultimately  compel  her  to  resign  them,  she  determined 
without  loss  of  time  to  make  herself  mistress  of  their 
contents. 

One,  and  the  most  important  of  these  documents, 
was  a  long  and  confidential  letter  from  the  Emperor  to 
the  Town-Council  and  the  chief  heads  of  conventual 
houses  in  Klosterheim.  It  contained  a  rapid  summary 
of  the  principal  events  in  her  lover's  life,  from  his 
infancy,  when  some  dreadful  domestic  tragedy  had 
thrown  him  upon  the  Emperor's  protection,  to  his 
present  period  of  early  manhood,  when  his  own  sword 
and  distinguished  talents  had  raised  him  to  a  brilliant 
name  and  a  high  military  rank  in  the  Imperial  service. 
What  were  the  circumstances  of  that  tragedy,  as  a 
case  sufficiently  well  known  to  those  whom  he  ad 
dressed,  or  to  be  collected  from  accompanying  papers, 
the  Emperor  did  not  say.  But  he  lavished  every  va 
riety  of  praise  upon  Maximilian,  with  a  liberality  that 
won  tears  of  delight  from  the  solitary  young  lady,  as 
she  now  sat  at  midnight  looking  over  these  gracious 
testimonies  to  her  lover's  merit.  A  theme,  so  de 
lightful  to  Paulina,  could  not  be  unseasonable  at  any 
time  ;  and  never  did  her  thoughts  revert  to  him  more 
fondly  than  at  this  moment,  when  she  so  much  needed 


KLOSTERHKIM.  213 

his  protecting  arm.  Yet,  the  Emperor,  she  was 
awaiv,  must  have  some  more  special  motive  for  en 
larging  upon  this  topic,  than  his  general  favor  to  Max 
imilian.  What  this  could  be  in  a  case  so  closely 
connecting  the  parties  to  the  correspondence  on  both 
sides  with  Klosterheim,  a  little  interested  her  curiosity. 
And,  on  looking  more  narrowly  at  the  accompanying 
documents,  in  one  which  had  been  most  pointedly  re 
ferred  to  by  the  Emperor,  she  found  some  disclosures 
on  the  subject  of  her  lover's  early  misfortunes,  which, 
whilst  they  filled  her  with  horror  and  astonishment, 
elevated  the  natural  pretensions  of  Maximilian  in  point 
of  birth  and  descent  more  nearly  to  a  level  with  the 
splendor  of  his  self-created  distinctions ;  and  thus 
crowned  him,  who  already  lived  in  her  apprehension 
as  the  very  model  of  a  hero,  with  the  only  advantages 
that  he  had  ever  been  supposed  to  want  —  the  interest 
which  attaches  to  unmerited  misfortunes,  and  the 
splendor  of  an  illustrious  descent. 

As  she  thus  sat,  absorbed  in  the  story  of  her  lover's 
early  misfortunes,  a  murmuring  sound  of  talking 
attracted  her  ear,  apparently  issuing  from  the  closet. 
Hastily  throwing  open  the  door,  she  found  that  a  thin 
wooden  partition,  veined  with  numerous  chinks,  was 
the  sole  separation  between  the  closet  and  an  adjoining 
bed-room.  The  words  were  startling,  incoherent,  and 
at  times  raving.  Evidently  they  proceeded  from  some 
patient  stretched  on  a  bed  of  sickness,  and  dealing 


214  KLOSTERHEIM. 

with  a  sort  of  horrors  in  his  distempered  fancy,  worse, 
it  was  to  be  hoped,  than  any  which  the  records  of  his 
own  remembrance  could  bring  before  him.  Some 
times  he  spoke  in  the  character  of  one  who  chases  a 
deer  in  a  forest ;  sometimes  he  was  close  upon  the 
haunches  of  his  game  ;  sometimes  it  seemed  on  the 
point  of  escaping  him.  Then  the  nature  of  the  game 
changed  utterly,  and  became  something  human  ;  and 
a  companion  was  suddenly  at  his  side.  With  him  he 
quarrelled  fiercely  about  their  share  in  the  pursuit  and 
capture.  "  Oh,  my  lord,  you  must  not  deny  it.  Look, 
look  !  your  hands  are  bloodier  than  mine.  Fie  !  fie  ! 
is  there  no  running  water  in  the  forest  ?  So  young 
as  he  is,  and  so  noble !  Stand  off !  he  will  cover  us 
all  with  his  blood !  Oh,  what  a  groan  was  that !  It 
will  have  broke  somebody's  heart-strings,  I  think  !  It 
would  have  broken  mine  when  I  was  younger.  But 
these  wars  make  us  all  cruel.  Yet  you  are  worse  than 
I  am."  Then  again,  after  a  pause,  the  patient  seemed 
to  start  up  in  bed,  and  he  cried  out  convulsively  — 
"  Give  me  my  share,  I  say.  Wherefore  must  my 
share  be  so  small  ?  There  he  comes  past  again. 
Now  strike,  now,  now,  now  !  Get  his  head  down,  my 
lord.  He's  off,  by  G —  !  Now,  if  he  gets  out  of  the 
forest,  two  hours  will  take  him  to  Vienna.  And  we 
must  go  to  Rome  :  where  else  could  we  get  absolu 
tion  ?  Oh,  Heavens  !  the  forest  is  full  of  blood,  well 
may  our  hands  be  bloody.  I  see  flowers  all  the  way 


KLOSTERHEIM.  215 

to  Vienna  :  but  there  is  blood  below :  oh,  what  a 
depth  !  what  a  depth  !  Oh  !  heart,  heart !  See 
how  he  starts  up  from  his  lair !  Oh  !  your  Highness 
has  deceived  me !  There  are  a  thousand  upon  otic 
man ! " 

In  such  terms  he  continued  to  rave,  until  Paulina's 
mind  was  so  much  harassed  with  the  constant  succes 
sion  of  dreadful  images,  and  frenzied  ejaculations,  all 
making  report  of  a  life  passed  in  scenes  of  horror, 
bloodshed  and  violence,  that  at  length,  for  her  own 
relief,  she  was  obliged  to  close  the  door  ;  through 
which,  however,  at  intervals,  piercing  shrieks  or  half- 
stifled  curses  still  continued  to  find  their  way.  It 
struck  her  as  a  remarkable  coincidence,  that  some 
thing  like  a  slender  thread  of  connection  might  be 
found  between  the  dreadful  story  narrated  in  the  Im 
perial  document,  and  the  delirious  ravings  of  this  poor 
wretched  creature,  to  whom  accident  had  made  her  a 
neighbor  for  a  single  night. 

Early  the  next  morning,  Paulina  and  her  servant 
were  summoned  to  resume  their  journey  ;  and  three 
hours  more  of  rapid  travelling  brought  them  to  the 
frowning  fortress  of  Lovenstein.  Their  escort,  with 
any  one  of  whom  they  had  found  but  few  opportunities 
of  communicating,  had  shown  themselves  throughout 
gloomy  and  obstinately  silent.  They  knew  not,  there 
fore,  to  what  distance  their  journey  extended.  But 
from  the  elaborate  ceremonies  with  which  they  were 


216  KLOSTERHE1M. 

here  received,  and  the  formal  receipt  for  their  persons, 
which  was  drawn  up  and  delivered  by  the  governor  to 
the  officer  commanding  their  escort,  Paulina  judged 
that  the  castle  of  Lovenstein  would  prove  to  be  their 
final  destination. 


KLOSTERHEIM.  217 


CHAPTER   XXII. 

Two  days  elapsed  without  any  change  in  Paulina's 
situation,  as  she  found  it  arranged  upon  her  first  arrival 
at  Lovenstein.  Her  rooms  were  not  incommodious  ; 
but  the  massy  barricades  at  the  doors,  the  grated  win 
dows,  and  the  sentinels  who  mounted  guard  upon  all 
the  avenues  which  led  to  her  apartments,  satisfied  her 
sufficiently  that  she  was  a  prisoner. 

The  third  morning  after  her  arrival  brought  her  a 
still  more  unwelcome  proof  of  this  melancholy  truth,  in 
the  summons  which  she  received  to  attend  a  court  of 
criminal  justice  on  the  succeeding  day,  connected  with 
the  tenor  of  its  language.  Her  heart  died  within  her  as 
she  found  herself  called  upon  to  answer  as  a  delin 
quent  on  a  charge  of  treasonable  conspiracy  with  various 
members  of  the  university  of  Klosterheim,  against  the 

sovereign  prince,  the  Landgrave  of  X .  Witnesses 

in  exculpation,  whom  could  she  produce  ?  Or  how  de 
fend  herself  before  a  tribunal  where  all  alike,  judge, 
evidence,  accuser,  were  in  effect  one  and  the  same  ma 
lignant  enemy  ?  In  what  way  she  could  have  come 
to  be  connected  in  the  Landgrave's  mind  with  a  charge 


218  KLOSTERHEIM. 

of  treason  against  his  princely  rights,  she  found  it  diffi 
cult  to  explain,  unless  the  mere  fact  of  having  carried 
the  Imperial  despatches  in  the  trunks  about  her  car 
riages,  were  sufficient  to  implicate  her  as  a  secret 
emissary  or  agent  concerned  in  the  Imperial  diplo 
macy.  But  she  strongly  suspected  that  some  deep 
misapprehension  existed  in  the  Landgrave's  mind ;  and 
its  origin,  she  fancied,  might  be  found  in  the  refined 
knavery  of  their  ruffian  host  at  Waldenhausen,  in 
making  his  market  of  the  papers  which  he  had  pur 
loined.  Bringing  them  forward  separately  and  by 
piece-meal,  he  had  probably  hoped  to  receive  so  many 
separate  rewards.  But,  as  it  would  often  happen  that 
one  paper  was  necessary  in  the  way  of  explanation  to 
another,  and  the  whole,  perhaps,  were  almost  essential 
to  the  proper  understanding  of  any  one,  the  result 
would  inevitably  be  —  grievously  to  mislead  the  Land 
grave.  Further  communications,  indeed,  would  have 
tended  to  disabuse  the  Prince  of  any  delusions  raised 
in  this  way.  But  it  was  probable,  as  Paulina  had 
recently  learned  in  passing  through  Waldenhausen, 
that  the  ruffian's  illness  and  delirium  had  put  a  stop  to 
any  further  communication  of  papers  ;  and  thus  the 
misconceptions  which  he  had  caused,  were  perpetu 
ated  in  the  Landgrave's  mind. 

It  was  on  the  third  day  after  Paulina's  arrival,  that 
she  was  first  placed  before  the  court.  The  presiding 
officer  in  this  tribunal  was  the  governor  of  the  fortress, 


KLOSTERHEIM.  219 

a  tried  soldier,  but  a  ruffian  of  low  habits  and  cruel 
nature.  lie  had  risen  under  the  Landgrave's  patronage 
as  an  adventurer  of  desperate  courage,  ready  for  any 
service,  however  disreputable,  careless  alike  of  peril  or 
of  infamy.  In  common  with  many  partisan  officers, 
who  had  sprung  from  the  ranks  in  this  adventurous  war, 
seeing  on  every  side  and  in  the  highest  quarters,  princes 
as  well  as  supreme  commanders,  the  uttermost  con 
tempt  of  justice  and  moral  principle,  —  he  had  fought 
his  way  to  distinction  and  fortune,  through  every  species 
of  ignoble  cruelty.  He  had  passed  from  service  to 
service,  as  he  saw  an  opening  for  his  own  peculiar 
interest  or  merit,  everywhere  valued  as  a  soldier  of 
desperate  enterprise,  everywhere  abhorred  as  a  man. 
By  birth  a  Croatian,  he  had  exhibited  himself  as  one 
of  the  most  savage  leaders  of  that  order  of  barbarians 
in  the  sack  of  Magdeburgh,  where  he  served  under 
Tilly  :  but,  latterly,  he  had  taken  service  again  under 
his  original  patron,  the  Landgrave,  who  had  lured  him 
back  to  his  interest  by  the  rank  of  general  and  the 
governorship  of  Lovestein. 

This  brutal  officer,  who  had  latterly  lived  in  a  state 
of  continual  intoxication,  was  the  judge  before  whom 
the  lovely  and  innocent  Paulina  was  now  arraigned  on 
a  charge  affecting  her  life.  In  fact,  it  became  obvious 
that  the  process  was  not  designed  for  any  other  pur 
pose  than  to  save  appearances,  —  and,  if  that  should 
seem  possible,  to  extract  further  discoveries  from  the 


220  KLOSTERHEIM. 

prisoner.  The  general  acted  as  supreme  arbiter  in 
every  question  of  rights  and  power  that  arose  to  the 
court  in  the  administration  of  their  almost  unlimited 
functions.  Doubts  he  allowed  of  none  ;  and  cut  every 
knot  of  jurisprudence,  whether  form  or  substance,  by 
his  Croatian  sabre.  Two  assessors,  however,  he  wil 
lingly  received  upon  his  bench  of  justice,  to  relieve  him 
from  the  fatigue  and  difficulty  of  conducting  a  per 
plexed  examination. 

These  assessors  were  lawyers  of  a  low  class,  who 
tempered  the  exercise  of  their  official  duties  with  as 
few  scruples  of  justice,  and  as  little  regard  to  the  re 
straints  of  courtesy,  as  their  military  principal.  The 
three  judges  were  almost  equally  ferocious,  and  tools 
equally  abject  of  the  unprincipled  sovereign  whom 
they  served. 

A  sovereign,  however,  he  was  ;  and  Paulina  was 
well  aware  that  in  his  own  states  he  had  the  power  of 
life  and  death.  She  had  good  reason  to  see  that  her 
own  death  was  resolved  on ;  still  she  neglected  no 
means  of  honorable  self-defence.  In  a  tone  of  mingled 
sweetness  and  dignity  she  maintained  her  innocence 
of  all  that  was  alleged  against  her;  protested  that  she 
was  unacquainted  with  the  tenor  of  any  papers  which 
might  have  been  found  in  her  trunks ;  and  claimed  her 
privilege,  as  a  subject  of  the  Emperor,  in  bar  of  all  right 
on  the  Landgrave's  part  to  call  her  to  account.  These 
pleas  were  overruled,  and  when  she  further  acquainted 


KLOSTERITEIM.  221 

the  court  that  she  was  a  near  relative  of  the  Emperor's, 
and  ventured  to  hint  at  the  vengeance  with  which  his 
Imperial  .Majesty  would  not  fail  to  visit  so  bloody  a 
contempt  of  justice,  she  was  surprised  to  find  this 
menace  treated  with  mockery  and  laughter.  In  reality, 
the  long  habit  of  fighting  for  and  against  all  the  Princes 
of  Germany,  had  given  to  the  Croatian  general  a  dis 
regard  for  any  of  them,  except  on  the  single  consider 
ation  of  receiving  his  pay  at  the  moment ;  and  a  single 
circumstance  unknown  to  Paulina,  in  the  final  deter 
mination  of  the  Landgrave,  to  earn  a  merit  with  his 
Swedish  allies  by  breaking  off  all  terms  of  reserve  or 
compromise  with  the  Imperial  court,  impressed  a  savage 
desperation  on  the  tone  of  that  Prince's  policy  at  this 
particular  time.  The  Landgrave  had  resolved  to  stake 
his  all  upon  a  single  throw.  A  battle  was  now  ex 
pected,  which,  if  favorable  to  the  Swedes,  would  lay 
open  the  road  to  Vienna.  The  Landgrave  was  pre 
pared  to  abide  the  issue ;  not,  perhaps,  wholly  unin 
fluenced  to  so  extreme  a  course  by  the  very  paper 
which  had  been  robbed  from  Paulina.  His  policy  was 
known  to  his  agents,  and  conspicuously  influenced  their 
manner  of  receiving  her  menace. 

Menaces,  they  informed  her,  came  with  better  grace 
from  those  who  had  the  power  to  enforce  them  ;  and 
with  a  brutal  scoff  the  Croatian  bade  her  merit  their 
indulgence  by  frank  discoveries  and  voluntary  confes 
sions.  He  insisted  on  knowing  the  nature  of  the  con- 


222  KLOSTERHE1M. 

nection  which  the  Imperial  Colonel  of  Horse,  Maximil 
ian,  had  maintained  with  the  students  of  Klosterheim  ; 
and  upon  other  discoveries,  with  respect  to  most  of 
which  Paulina  was  too  imperfectly  informed  herself  to 
be  capable  of  giving  any  light.  Her  earnest  declarations 
to  this  effect  were  treated  with  disregard.  She  was 
dismissed  for  the  present,  but  with  an  intimation  that 
on  the  morrow  she  must  prepare  herself  with  a  more 
complying  temper,  or  with  a  sort  of  firmness  in  main 
taining  her  resolution,  which  would  not  perhaps  long 
resist  those  means  which  the  law  had  placed  at  their 
disposal  for  dealing  with  the  refractory  and  obstinate. 


KLOSTERHE1M.  223 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

PAULINA  meditated  earnestly  upon  the  import  of 
this  parting  threat.  The  more  she  considered  it,  the 
less  could  she  doubt  that  these  fierce  inquisitors  had 
meant  to  threaten  her  with  torture.  She  felt  the  whole 
indignity  of  such  a  threat,  though  she  could  hardly 
bring  herself  to  believe  them  in  earnest. 

On  the  following  morning  she  was  summoned  early 
before  her  judges.  They  had  not  yet  assembled  ;  but 
some  of  the  lower  officials  were  pacing  up  and  down, 
exchanging  unintelligible  jokes,  looking  sometimes  at 
herself,  sometimes  at  an  iron  machine,  with  a  complex 
arrangement  of  wheels  and  screws.  Dark  were  the 
suspicions  which  assaulted  Paulina  as  this  framework, 
or  couch  of  iron  first  met  her  eyes  —  and  perhaps 
some  of  the  jests  circulating  amongst  the  brutal  minis 
ters  of  her  brutal  judges  would  have  been  intelligible 
enough,  had  she  condescended  to  turn  her  attention  in 
that  direction.  Meantime  her  doubts  were  otherwise 
dispersed.  The  Croatian  officer  now  entered  the  room 
alone,  his  assessors  having  probably  declined  partici- 


224  KLOSTERHEIM. 

pation  in  that  part  of  the  horrid  functions  which  re 
mained  under  the  Landgrave's  commission. 

This  man,  presenting  a  paper  with  a  long  list  of 
interrogatories  to  Paulina,  bade  her  now  rehearse  ver 
bally  the  sum  of  the  answers  which  she  designed  to 
give.  Running  rapidly  through  them,  Paulina  replied 
with  dignity,  yet  trembling  and  agitated,  that  these 
were  questions  which  in  any  sense  she  could  not  answer 
—  many  of  them  referring  to  points  on  which  she  had 
no  knowledge,  and  none  of  them  being  consistent  with 
the  gratitude  and  friendship  so  largely  due  on  her  side 
to  the  persons  implicated  in  the  bearing  of  these 
questions. 

"  Then  you  refuse  ?  " 

"  Certainly  ;  there  are  three  questions  only  which  it 
is  in  my  power  to  answer  at  all  —  even  these  imper 
fectly.  Answers  such  as  you  expect  would  load  me 
with  dishonor  ?  " 

"  Then  you  refuse  ?  " 

"  For  the  reasons  I  have  stated,  undoubtedly  I  do." 

"  Once  more  —  you  refuse  ?  " 

"  I  refuse,  certainly  ;  but  do  me  the  justice  to  record 
my  reasons." 

"  Reasons  !  —  ha  !    ha  !   they   had    need  be    strong 
ones  if  they  will   hold  out  against  the   arguments  of 
this  pretty  plaything,"  laying  his  hand  upon  the  ma 
chine.     "  However,  the  choice  is  yours,  not  mine." 

So  saying,  he  made  a  sign  to  the  attendants.     One 


KLOSTERHEIM.  225 

in  to  move  the  machine,  and  work  the  screws  or 
raise  the  clanking  grates  and  framework,  with  a  savage 
din,  —  two  others  bared  their  arms.  Paulina  looked 
on  motionless  with  sudden  horror,  and  palpitating  with 
fear. 

The  Croatian  nodded  to  the  men  ;  and  then  in  a 
loud  commanding  voice  exclaimed  —  "The  question 
in  the  first  degree  !  " 

At  this  moment  Paulina  recovered  her  strength, 
which  the  first  panic  had  dispelled.  She  saw  a  man 
approach  her  with  a  ferocious  grin  of  exultation.  An 
other,  with  the  same  horrid  expression  of  countenance, 
carried  a  large  vase  of  water. 

The  whole  indignity  of  the  scene  flashed  full  upon 
her  mind.  She,  a  lady  of  the  Imperial  house,  threat 
ened  with  torture  by  the  base  agent  of  a  titled  ruffian  ! 
She  who  owed  him  no  duty  —  had  violated  no  claim 
of  hospitality,  though  in  her  own  person  all  had  been 
atrociously  outraged  ! 

Thoughts  like  these  flew  rapidly  through  her  brain, 
when  suddenly  a  door  opened  behind  her.  It  was  an 
attendant,  with  some  implements  for  tightening  or  re 
laxing  bolts.  The  bare-armed  ruffian  at  this  moment 
raised  his  arm  to  seize  hers.  Shrinking  from  the  pol 
lution  of  his  accursed  touch,  Paulina  turned  hastily 
round,  darted  through  the  open  door,  and  fled,  like  a 
dove  pursued  by  vultures,  along  the  passages  which 
stretched  before  her.  Already  she  felt  their  hot 
lo 


226  KLOSTERHEIM. 

breathing  upon  her  neck,  already  the  foremost  had 
raised  his  hand  to  arrest  her,  when  a  sudden  turn 
brought  her  full  upon  a  band  of  young  women,  tending 
upon  one  of  superior  rank,  manifestly  their  mistress. 

"  Oh,  madam  !  "  exclaimed  Paulina,  "  save  me  ! 
save  me  !  "  —  and  with  these  words  fell  exhausted  at 
the  lady's  feet. 

This  female  —  young,  beautiful,  and  with  a  touching 
pensiveness  of  manners  —  raised  her  tenderly  in  her 
arms,  and  with  a  sisterly  tone  of  affection  bade  her 
fear  nothing ;  —  and  the  respectful  manner  in  which 
the  officials  retired  at  her  command,  satisfied  Paulina 
that  she  stood  in  some  very  near  relation  to  the  Land 
grave  —  in  reality  she  soon  spoke  of  him  as  her 
father.  "  Is  it  possible,"  thought  Paulina  to  herself, 
c<  that  this  innocent  and  lovely  child  "  (for  she  was  not 
more  than  seventeen,  though  with  a  prematurity  of 
womanly  person  that  raised  her  to  a  level  with  Pauli 
na's  height)  "  should  owe  the  affection  of  a  daughter 
to  a  tyrant  so  savage  as  the  Landgrave  ?  " 

She  found,  however,  that  the  gentle  Princess  Ade 
line  owed  to  her  own  childlike  simplicity  the  best  gift 
that  one  so  situated  could  have  received  from  the 
bounty  of  Heaven.  The  barbarities  exercised  by  the 
Croatian  governor,  she  charged  entirely  upon  his  own 
brutal  nature  ;  and  so  confirmed  was  she  in  this  view 
by  Paulina's  own  case,  that  she  now  resolved  upon 
executing  a  resolution  she  had  long  projected.  Her 


KLOSTERHEIM. 

father's  confidence  was  basely  abused  ;  this  she  said, 
and  devoutly  believed.  "No  part  of  the  truth  ever 
'.:e<l  him  ;  her  own  letters  remained  disregarded  in 
a  way  which  was  irreconcilable  with  the  testimonies  of 
profound  'affection  to  herself,  daily  showered  upon  her 
by  his  Highness.1" 

In  reality,  this  sole  child  of  the  Landgrave  was  also 
the  one  sole  jewel  that  gave  a  value  in  his  eyes  to  his 
else  desolate  life.  Everything  in  and  about  the  castle 
of  Lovestein  was  placed  under  her  absolute  control ; 
even  the  brutal  Croatian  governor  knew  that  no  plea 
or  extremity  of  circumstances  would  atone  for  one  act 
of  disobedience  to  her  orders,  —  and  hence  it  was  that 
the  ministers  of  this  tyrant  retired  with  so  much 
prompt  obedience  to  her  commands. 

Experience,  however,  had  taught  the  Princess,  that 
not  unfrequently,  orders  apparently  obeyed  were  after 
wards  secretly  evaded  ;  and  the  disregard  paid  of  late 
to  her  letters  of  complaint,  satisfied  her  that  they  were 
stifled  and  suppressed  by  the  governor.  Paulina, 
therefore,  whom  a  few  hours  of  unrestrained  inter 
course  had  made  interesting  to  her  heart,  she  would 
not  suffer  even  to  sleep  apart  from  herself.  Her  own 
agitation  on  the  poor  prisoner's  behalf  became  greater 
even  than  that  of  Paulina  ;  and  as  fresh  circumstances 
of  suspicion  daily  arose  in  the  savage  governor's  de 
portment,  she  now  took  in  good  earnest  those  measures 
for  escape  to  Klosterheim  which  she  had  long  ar- 


228  KLOSTERHEiM. 

ranged.  In  this  purpose  she  was  greatly  assisted  by 
the  absolute  authority  which  her  father  had  conceded 
to  her  over  everything  but  the  mere  military  arrange 
ments  in  the  fortress.  Under  the  color  of  an  excur 
sion,  such  as  she  had  been  daily  accustomed  to  take, 
she  found  no  difficulty  in  placing  Paulina,  sufficiently 
disguised,  amongst  her  own  servants.  At  a  proper 
point  of  the  road,  Paulina  and  a  few  attendants,  with 
the  Princess  herself,  issued  from  their  coaches,  and 
bidding  them  await  their  return  in  half  an  hour's  inter 
val,  by  that  time  were  far  advanced  upon  their  road  to 
the  military  post  of  Falkenberg. 


KLOSTERIIEIM. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

IN  twenty  days  The  Mysterious  Masque  bad  sum 
moned  the  Landgrave  "to  answer,  for  crimes  un- 
atoned,  before  a  tribunal  where  no  power  but  that  of 
innocence  could  avail  him."  These  days  were  nearly 
expired.  The  morning  of  the  Twentieth  had  arrived. 

There  were  two  interpretations  of  this  summons. 
By  many  it  was  believed  that  the  tribunal  contem 
plated  was  that  of  the  Emperor  ;  and  that,  by  some 
mysterious  plot,  which  could  not  be  more  difficult  of 
execution  than  others  which  had  actually  been  accom 
plished  by  The  Masque,  on  this  day  the  Landgrave 
would  be  carried  off  to  Vienna.  Others,  again,  under 
standing  by  the  tribunal,  in  the  same  sense,  the  Impe 
rial  chamber  of  criminal  justice,  believed  it  possible  to 
fulfil  the  summons  in  some  way  less  liable  to  delay  or 
uncertainty,  than  by  a  long  journey  to  Vienna,  through 
a  country  beset  with  enemies.  But  a  third  party,  dif 
fering  from  both  the  others,  understood  by  the  tribunal 
where  innocence  was  the  only  shield,  the  judgment 
seat  of  heaven  ;  and  believed  on  this  day  justice  would 
be  executed  on  the  Landgrave,  for  crimes  known  and 


230  KLOSTERHEIM. 

unknown,  by  a  public  and  memorable  death.  Under 
any  interpretation,  however,  nobody  amongst  the  citi 
zens  could  venture  peremptorily  to  deny,  after  the 
issue  of  the  masqued  ball,  and  of  so  many  other  public 
denunciations,  that  The  Masque  would  keep  his  word 
to  the  letter. 

It  followed  of  necessity  that  everybody  was  on  the 
tiptoe  of  suspense,  and  that  the  interest  hanging  upon 
the  issue  of  this  night's  events  swallowed  up  all  other 
anxieties,  of  whatsoever  nature.  Even  the  battle, 
which  was  now  daily  expected  between  the  Imperial 
and  Swedish  armies,  ceased  to  occupy  the  hearts  and 
conversation  of  the  citizens.  Domestic  and  public 
concerns  alike  gave  way  to  the  coming  catastrophe  so 
solemnly  denounced  by  The  Masque. 

The  Landgrave  alone  maintained  a  gloomy  reserve, 
and  the  expression  of  a  haughty  disdain.  He  had  re 
solved  to  meet  the  summons  with  the  liveliest  expres 
sion  of  defiance,  by  fixing  this  evening  for  a  second 
masqued  ball,  upon  a  greater  scale  than  the  first.  In 
doing  this  he  acted  advisedly,  and  with  the  counsel  of 
his  Swedish  allies.  They  represented  to  him  that  the 
issue  of  the  approaching  battle  might  be  relied  upon 
as  pretty  nearly  certain  ;  all  the  indications  were 
indeed  generally  thought  to  promise  a  decisive  turn  in 
their  favor ;  but  in  the  worst  case,  no  defeat  of  the 
Swedish  army  in  this  war  had  ever  been  complete  ; 
that  the  bulk  of  the  retreating  army,  if  the  Swedes 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  231 

should  be  obliged  to  retreat,  would  take  the  road  to 
EQosterheim,  and  would  furnish  to  himself  a  garrison 
capable  of  holding  the  city  for  many  months  to  come, 
(and  that  would  not  fail  to  bring  many  fresh  chances 
to  all  of  them.)  whilst  to  his  new  and  cordial  allies 
this  course  would  offer  a  secure  retreat  from  pursuing 
enemies,  and  a  satisfactory  proof  of  his  own  fidelity. 
This  even  in  tl>e  worst  case  :  whereas  in  the  better 
and  more  probable  one,  of  a  victory  to  the  Swedes,  to 
maintain  the  city  but  for  a  day  or  two  longer  against 
internal  conspirators,  and  the  secret  co-operators  out 
side,  would  be  in  effect  to  ratify  any  victory  which  the 
Swedes  might  gain  by  putting  into  their  hands  at  a 
critical  moment  one  of  its  most  splendid  trophies  and 
guarantees. 

These  counsels  fell  too  much  into  the  Landgrave's 
own  way  of  thinking  to  meet  with  any  demurs  from 
him.  It  was  agreed,  therefore,  that  as  many  Swedish 
troops  as  could  at  this  important  moment  be  spared, 
should  be  introduced  into  the  halls  and  saloons  of  the 
castle,  on  the  eventful  evening,  disguised  as  masquers. 
These  were  about  four  hundred  ;  and  other  arrange 
ments  were  made,  equally  mysterious,  and  some  of 
them  known  only  to  the  Landgrave. 

At  seven  o'clock,  as  on  the  former  occasion,  the 
company  began  to  assemble.  The  same  rooms  were 
thrown  open  ;  but,  as  the  party  was  now  far  more  nu 
merous,  and  was  made  more  comprehensive  in  point 


232  KLOSTERHEIM. 

of  rank,  in  order  to  include  all  who  were  involved  in 
the  conspiracy  which  had  been  some  time  maturing  in 
Klosterheim,  fresh  suites  of  rooms  were  judged  neces 
sary,  on  the  pretext  of  giving  fuller  effect  to  the  princely 
hospitalities  of  the  Landgrave.  And,  on  this  occasion, 
according  to  an  old  privilege  conceded  in  the  case  of 
coronations  or  galas  of  magnificence,  by  the  Lady 
Abbess  of  St.  Agnes,  the  partition  walls  were  removed 
between  the  great  hall  of  the  schloss,  and  the  refec 
tory  of  that  immense  convent ;  so  that  the  two  vast 
establishments,  which  on  one  side  were  contiguous  to 
each  other,  were  thus  laid  into  one. 

The  company  had  now  continued  to  pour  in  for 
two  hours.  The  palace  and  the  refectory  of  the  con 
vent  were  now  overflowing  with  lights  and  splendid 
masques  ;  the  avenues  and  corridors  rang  with  music ; 
and,  though  every  heart  was  throbbing  with  fear  and 
suspense,  no  outward  expression  was  wanting  of  joy 
and  festal  pleasure.  For  the  present,  all  was  calm 
around  the  slumbering  volcano. 

Suddenly  the  Count  St.  Aldenheim,  who  was  stand 
ing  with  arms  folded,  and  surveying  the  brilliant  scene, 
felt  some  one  touch  his  hand,  in  the  way  concerted 
amongst  the  conspirators  as  a  private  signal  of  recog 
nition.  Ho  turned  and  recognized  his  friend,  the 
Baron  Adelort,  who  saluted  him  with  three  emphatic 
words  —  "  We  are  betrayed  !  "  —  Then,  after  a  pause, 
"  Follow  me." 


KLOSTERHEIM.  233 

St.  Aldcnheim  made  his  way  through  the  glittering 
crowds,  and  pressed  after  his  conductor  into  one  of  the 
most  private  corridors. 

"  Fear  not,"  said  the  other,  "  that  we  shall  be 
watched.  Vigilance  is  no  longer  necessary  to  our 
crafty  enemy.  He  has  already  triumphed.  Every 
avenue  of  escape  is  barred  and  secured  against  us  : 
every  outlet  of  the  palace  is  occupied  by  the  Land 
grave's  troops.  Not  a  man  of  us  will  return  alive." 

"  Heaven  forbid  we  should  prove  ourselves  such 
gulls  !  You  are  but  jesting,  my  friend." 

"  Would  to  God  I  were  !  my  information  is  but  too 
certain.  Something  I  have  overheard  by  accident ; 
something  has  been  told  me  ;  and  something  I  have 
seen.  Come  you  also,  Count,  and  see  what  I  will 
show  you  :  then  judge  for  yourself." 

So  saying,  he  led  St.  Aldenheim  by  a  little  circuit  of 
passages  to  a  doorway,  through  which  they  passed  into 
a  hall  of  vast  proportions  ;  to  judge  by  the  catafalques, 
and  mural  monuments,  scattered  at  intervals  along  the 
vast  expanse  of  its  walls,  this  seemed  to  be  the  ante- 
chapel  of  St.  Agnes.  In  fact  it  was  so  ;  a  few  faint 
lights  glimmered  through  the  gloomy  extent  of  this 
immense  chamber,  placed  (according  to  the  Catholic 
rite)  at  the  shrine  of  the  saint.  Feeble  as  it  was, 
however,  the  light  was  powerful  enough  to  display  in 
the  centre  a  pile  of  scaffolding  covered  with  black 
drapery.  Standing  at  the  foot,  they  could  trace  the 


234  KLOSTERHEIM. 

outlines  of  a  stage  at  the  summit,  fenced  in  with  a 
railing,  a  block,  and  the  other  apparatus  for  the 
solemnity  of  a  public  execution,  whilst  the  saw-dust 
below  their  feet  ascertained  the  spot  in  which  the 
heads  were  to  fall. 

"  Shall  we  ascend  and  rehearse  our  parts  ?  "  asked 
the  Count :  "  for  methinks  everything  is  prepared, 
except  the  headsman  and  the  spectators.  A  plague  on 
the  inhospitable  knave  !  " 

"  Yes,  St.  Aldenheim,  all  is  prepared  —  even  to  the 
sufferers.  On  that  list,  you  stand  foremost.  Believe 
me,  I  speak  with  knowledge  ;  no  matter  where  gained. 
It  is  certain." 

"  Well,  necessitas  non  liabet  lege?n ;  and  he  that 
dies  on  Tuesday  will  never  catch  cold  on  Wednesday. 
But  still,  that  comfort  is  something  of  the  coldest. 
Think  you  that  none  better  could  be  had  ?  " 

"  As  how  ?  " 

"  Revenge,  par  exemple ;  a  little  revenge.  Might 
one  not  screw  the  neck  of  this  base  Prince,  who 
abuses  the  confidence  of  cavaliers  so  perfidiously  ? 
To  die  I  care  not ;  but  to  be  caught  in  a  trap,  and  die 
like  a  rat  lured  by  a  bait  of  toasted  cheese  —  Faugh  ! 
my  countly  blood  rebels  against  it !  " 

"  Something  might  surely  be  done,  if  we  could 
muster  in  any  strength.  That  is,  we  might  die  sword 
in  hand  ;  but  —  " 

44  Enough  !  I  ask  no  more.     Now  let  us  go.     We 


KLOSTERHEIM.  235 

will  separately  pace  the  rooms,  draw  together  as  many 
of  our  party  as  we  can  single  out,  and  then  proclaim 
ourselves.  Lot  each  answer  for  one  victim.  I'll  take 
his  Highness  for  my  share." 

With  this  purpose  and  thus  forewarned  of  the 
dreadful  fate  at  hand,  they  left  the  gloomy  ante-chapel, 
traversed  the  long  suite  of  entertaining  rooms,  and  col 
lected  as  many  as  could  easily  be  detached  from  the 
dances  without  too  much  pointing  out  their  own 
motions  to  the  attention  of  all  present.  The  Count 
St.  Aldenheim  was  seen  rapidly  explaining  to  them 
the  circumstances  of  their  dreadful  situation  ;  whilst 
hands  uplifted,  or  suddenly  applied  to  the  hilt  of  the 
sword,  with  other  gestures  of  sudden  emotion,  ex 
pressed  the  different  impressions  of  rage  or  fear, 
which,  under  each  variety  of  character,  impressed 
the  several  hours.  Some  of  them,  however,  were  too 
unguarded  in  their  motions  ;  and  the  energy  of  their 
gesticulations  had  now  begun  to  attract  the  attention  of 
the  company. 

The  Landgrave  himself  had  his  eye  upon  them. 
But  at  this  moment  his  attention  was  drawn  off  by  an 
uproar  of  confusion  in  an  ante-chamber,  which  argued 
some  tragical  inportance  in  the  cause  that  could  prompt 
so  sudden  a  disregard  for  the  restraints  of  time  and 
place. 


236  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

His  Highness  issued  from  the  room  in  consterna 
tion,  followed  by  many  of  the  company.  In  the  very 
centre  of  the  ante-room,  booted  and  spurred,  bearing 
all  the  marks  of  extreme  haste,  panic,  and  confusion, 
stood  a  Swedish  officer,  dealing  forth  hasty  fragments 
of  some  heart-shaking  intelligence.  "  All  is  lost !  " 
said  he,  "  not  a  regiment  has  escaped  !  "  u  And  the 
place  ?  "  exclaimed  a  press  of  inquirers.  "  Nord- 
lingen."  "  And  which  way  has  the  Swedish  army 
retreated  ?  "  demanded  a  masque  behind  him. 

"  Retreat !  "  retorted  the  officer,  "  I  tell  you  there 
is  no  retreat.  All  have  perished.  The  army  is  no 
more.  Horse,  foot,  artillery  —  all  is  wrecked,  crushed, 
annihilated.  Whatever  yet  lives,  is  in  the  power  of 
the  Imperialists." 

At  this  moment  the  Landgrave  came  up,  and  in 
every  way  strove  to  check  these  too  liberal  communi 
cations.  He  frowned  ;  the  officer  saw  him  not.  He 
laid  his  hand  on  the  officer's  arm,  but  all  in  vain.  He 


KLOSTERHEIM.  237 

spoke,  but  the  officer  knew  not,  or  forgot  his  rank. 
Panic  and  immeasurable  sorrow  had  crushed  his  heart; 
ho  cared  not  for  restraints  ;  decorum  and  ceremony 
wnv  hc-cornc  idle  words.  The  Swedish  army  had 
perished.  The  greatest  disaster  of  the  whole  Thirty 
Years'  War  had  fallen  upon  his  countrymen.  His 
own  eyes  had  witnessed  the  tragedy,  and  he  had  no 
power  to  check  or  restrain  that  which  made  his  heart 
overflow. 

The  Landgrave  retired.  But  in  half  an  hour  the 
banquet  was  announced  ;  and  his  Highness  had  so 
much  command  over  his  own  feelings,  that  he  took  his 
seat  at  the  table.  He  seemed  tranquil  in  the  midst  of 
general  agitation  ;  for  the  company  were  distracted  by 
various  passions.  Some  exulted  in  the  great  victory 
of  the  Imperialists,  and  the  approaching  liberation  of 
Klosterheim.  Some  who  were  in  the  secret,  anticipated 
with  horror  the  coming  tragedy  of  vengeance  upon  his 
enemies,  which  the  Landgrave  had  prepared  for  this 
night.  Some  were  filled  with  suspense  and  awe  on 
the  probable  fulfilment  in  some  way  or  other,  doubtful 
as  to  the  mode,  but  tragic  (it  was  not  doubted)  for  the 
result  of  The  Masque's  mysterious  denunciation. 


Under  such  circumstances  of  universal  agitation  and 
suspense,  —  for  on  one  side  or  other  it  seemed  inevi 
table  that  this  night  must  produce  a  tragical  catas- 


238  KLOSTERHEIM. 

trophe,  —  it  was  not  extraordinary  that  silence  and 
embarrassment  should  at  one  moment  take  possession 
of  the  company,  and  at  another,  that  kind  of  forced 
and  intermitting  gayety,  which  still  more  forcibly  pro 
claimed  the  trepidation  which  really  mastered  the 
spirits  of  the  assemblage.  The  banquet  was  mag 
nificent  :  but  it  moved  heavily  and  in  sadness.  The 
music,  which  broke  the  silence  at  intervals,  was 
animating  and  triumphant ;  but  it  had  no  power  to 
disperse  the  gloom  which  hung  over  the  evening,  and 
which  was  gathering  strength  conspicuously  as  the 
hours  advanced  to  midnight. 

As  the  clock  struck  eleven,  the  orchestra  had  sud 
denly  become  silent ;  and,  as  no  buzz  of  conversation 
succeeded,  the  anxiety  of  expectation  became  more 
painfully  irritating.  The  whole  vast  assemblage  was 
hushed,  gazing  at  the  doors  —  at  each  other  —  or 
watching,  stealthily,  the  Landgrave's  countenance. 
Suddenly  a  sound  was  heard  in  an  ante-ropm  :  a  page 
entered  with  a  step  hurried  and  discomposed,  ad 
vanced  to  the  Landgrave's  seat,  and  bending  down 
wards,  whispered  some  news  or  message  to  that  Prince, 
of  which  not  a  syllable  could  be  caught  by  the  company. 
Whatever  were  its  import,  it  could  not  be  collected 
from  any  very  marked  change  on  the  features  of 
him  to  whom  it  was  addressed,  that  he  participated  in 
the  emotions  of  the  messenger,  which  were  obviously 
those  of  grief  or  panic  —  perhaps  of  both  united. 


KLOSTKKUKIM.  239 

Some  even  faiK'ii'd  that  a  transient  expression  of  ma 
lignant  exultation  crossed  the  Landgrave's  counte 
nance  at  this  moment.  But,  if  that  were  so,  it  was 
banished  as  suddenly  ;  and,  in  the  next  instant,  the 
Prince  arose  with  a  leisurely  motion  ;  and  with  a  very 
successful  affectation  (if  such  it  were)  of  extreme 
tranquillity,  he  moved  forwards  to  one  of  the  ante 
rooms,  in  which,  as  it  now  appeared,  some  person  was 
awaiting  his  presence. 

Who,  and  on  what  errand  ?  These  were  the 
questions  which  now  racked  the  curiosity  of  those 
among  the  company  who  had  least  concern  in  the 
final  event,  and  more  painfully  interested  others 
whose  fate  was  consciously  dependent  upon  the  ac 
cidents  which  the  next  hour  might  happen  to  bring  up. 
Silence  still  continuing  to  prevail,  and,  if  possible, 
deeper  silence  than  before,  it  was  inevitable  that  all 
the  company  —  those  even  whose  honorable  temper 
would  least  have  brooked  any  settled  purpose  of  sur 
prising  the  Landgrave's  secrets  —  should,  in  some 
measure,  become  a  party  to  what  was  now  passing  in 
the  ante-room. 

The  voice  of  the  Landgrave  was  heard  at  times  — 
briefly  and  somewhat  sternly  in  reply  —  but  apparently 
in  the  tone  of  one  who  is  thrown  upon  the  necessity 
of  self-defence.  One  the  other  side,  the  speaker  was 
earnest,  solemn,  and  (as  it  seemed)  upon  an  office  of 
menace  or  upbraiding.  For  a  time,  however,  the 


240  KLOSTERHEIM. 

tones  were  low  and  subdued  ;  but,  as  the  passion  of 
the  scene  advanced,  less  restraint  was  observed  on 
both  sides ;  and  at  length  many  believed  that  in  the 
stranger's  voice  they  recognized  that  of  the  Lady 
Abbess  ;  and  it  was  some  corroboration  of  this  conjec 
ture,  that  the  name  of  Paulina  began  now  frequently  to 
be  caught,  and  in  connection  with  ominous  words,  indi 
cating  some  dreadful  fate  supposed  to  have  befallen 
her. 

A  few  moments  dispersed  all  doubts.  The  tones 
of  bitter  and  angry  reproach  rose  louder  than  before  ; 
they  were,  without  doubt,  those  of  the  Abbess.  She 
charged  the  blood  of  Paulina  upon  the  Landgrave's 
head ;  denounced  the  instant  vengeance  of  the  Em 
peror  for  so  great  an  atrocity ;  and,  if  that  could  be 
evaded,  bade  him  expect  certain  retribution  from 
Heaven  for  so  wanton  and  useless  an  effusion  of 
innocent  blood. 

The  Landgrave  replied  in  a  lower  key;  and  his 
words  were  few  and  rapid.  That  they  were  words  of 
fierce  recrimination  was  easily  collected  from  the 
tone  ;  and  in  the  next  minute  the  parties  separated 
with  little  ceremony  (as  was  sufficiently  evident)  on 
either  side,  and  with  mutual  wrath.  The  Landgrave 
re-entered  the  banqueting-room  —  his  features  discom 
posed  and  inflated  with  passion ;  but  such  was  his 
self-command,  and  so  habitual  his  dissimulation,  that, 
by  the  time  he  reached  his  scat,  all  traces  of  agitation 


KLOSTERHEI3I. 

h;ul  disappeared  ;  hi*  countenance  had  resumed  its 
usual  expression  of  stern  serenity,  and  his  manners 
their  usual  air  of  perfect  self-possession. 

The  clock  of  St.  Agnes  struck  twelve.  At  that 
sound  the  Landgrave  rose.  "  Friends,  and  illustrious 
strangers ! "  said  he,  "  I  have  caused  one  seat  to  be 
left  empty  for  that  blood-stained  Masque  who  sum 
moned  me  to  answer  on  this  night  for  a  crime  which 
he  could  not  name,  at  a  bar  which  no  man  knows. 
His  summons  you  heard.  Its  fulfilment  is  yet  to  come. 
But  I  suppose  few  of  us  are  weak  enough  to  ex 
pect  —  " 

"  That  The  Masque  of  Klosterheim  will  ever  break 
his  engagements,"  said  a  deep  voice,  suddenly  inter 
rupting  the  Landgrave.  All  eyes  were  directed  to  the 
sound  ;  and  behold  !  there  stood  The  Masque,  and 
seated  himself  quietly  in  the  chair  which  had  been 
left  vacant  for  his  reception. 

"  It  is  well ! "  said  the  Landgrave ;  but  the  air  of 
vexation  and  panic  with  which  he  sank  back  into  his 
seat  belied  his  words.  Rising  again,  after  a  pause, 
with  some  agitation  he  said,  "  Audacious  criminal  ! 
since  last  we  met,  I  have  learned  to  know  you,  and  to 
appreciate  your  purposes.  It  is  now  fit  they  should 
be  known  to  Klosterheim.  A  scene  of  justice  awaits 
you  at  present,  which  will  teach  this  city  to  under 
stand  the  delusions  which  could  build  any  part  of  her 
16 


242  KLOSTERHEIM. 

hopes  upon  yourself.  Citizens  and  friends,  not  I, 
but  these  dark  criminals  and  interlopers,  whom  you 
will  presently  see  revealed  in  their  true  colors,  are 
answerable  for  that  interruption  to  the  course  of  our 
peaceful  festivities,  which  will  presently  be  brought 
before  you.  Not  I,  but  they,  are  responsible." 

So  saying,  the  Landgrave  arose,  and  the  whole 
of  that  immense  audience,  who  now  resumed  their 
masques,  and  prepared  to  follow  whither  his  Highness 
should  lead.  With  the  haste  of  one  who  fears  he  may 
be  anticipated  in  his  purpose,  and  the  fury  of  some 
bird  of  prey,  apprehending  that  his  struggling  victim 
may  yet  be  torn  from  his  talons,  the  Prince  hurried 
onwards  to  the  ante-chapel.  Innumerable  torches  now 
illuminated  its  darkness  ;  in  other  respects  it  remained 
as  St.  Aldenheim  had  left  it. 

The  Swedish  masques  had  many  of  them  with 
drawn  from  the  gala  on  hearing  the  dreadful  day  of 
Nordlingen.  But  enough  remained,  when  strength 
ened  by  the  body  guard  of  the  Landgrave,  to  make 
up  a  corps  of  nearly  five  hundred  men.  Under  the 
command  of  Colonel  Von  Aremberg,  part  of  them 
now  enclosed  the  scaffold,  and  part  prepared  to 
seize  the  persons  who  were  pointed  out  to  them  as 
conspirators.  Amongst  these  stood  foremost  The 
Masque. 

Shaking  off  those  who  attempted  to  lay  hands  upon 


KLOSTERI1E1M.  243 

him,  he  strode  disdainfully  within  the  ring ;  and  then 
turning  to  the  Landgrave,  he  said  — 

"  Prince,  for  once  be  generous  ;  accept  me  as  a 
ransom  for  the  rest." 

The  Landgrave  smiled  sarcastically.  "  That  were 
an  unequal  bargain,  methinks,  to  take  a  part  in  ex 
change  for  the  whole." 

"  The  whole  ?  And  where  is  then  your  assurance 
of  the  whole  ?  " 

k'  Who  should  now  make  it  doubtful  ?  There  is 
the  block ;  the  headsman  is  at  hand.  What  hand  can 
deliver  from  this  extremity  even  you,  Sir  Masque  ?  " 

"  That  which  has  many  times  delivered  me  from  a 
greater.  It  seems,  Prince,  that  you  forget  the  last 
days  in  the  history  of  Klosterheim.  He  that  rules  by 
night  in  Klosterheim,  may  well  expect  a  greater  favor 
than  this  when  he  descends  to  sue  for  it." 

The  Landgrave  smilea  contemptuously.  "  But 
again  I  ask  you,  sir,  will  you  on  any  terms  grant 
immunity  to  these  young  men  ?  " 

"  You  sue  as  vainly  for  others  as  you  would  do  for 
yourself." 

"  Then  all  grace  is  hopeless  ?  "  The  Landgrave 
vouchsafed  no  answer,  but  made  signals  to  Von  Arem- 
berg. 

"  Gentlemen,  cavaliers,  citizens  of  Klosterheim, 
you  that  are  not  involved  in  the  Landgrave's  sus 
picions,"  said  The  Masque  appeajingly,  "  will  you  not 


244  KLOSTERHEIM. 

join  me  in  the  intercession  I  offer  for  these  young 
friends,  who  are  else  to  perish  unjudged,  by  blank 
edict  of  martial  law  ?  " 

The  citizens  of  Klosterheim  interceded  with  inef 
fectual  supplication.  "  Gentlemen,  you  waste  your 
breath  ;  they  die  without  reprieve,"  replied  the  Land 
grave. 

"  Will  your  Highness  spare  none  ?  " 

"  Not  one,"  he  exclaimed  angrily,  "  not  the  youngest 
amongst  them." 

"  Nor  grant  a  day's  respite  to  him  who  may  appear 
on  examination  the  least  criminal  of  the  whole  ?  " 

"  A  day's  respite  ?  No,  nor  half  an  hour's.  — 
Headsman,  be  ready.  Soldiers,  lay  the  heads  of  the 
prisoners  ready  for  the  axe." 

"  Detested  Prince,  now  look  to  your  own  !  " 

With  a  succession  of  passions  flying  over  his  face, 
rage,  disdain,  suspicion,  the  Landgrave  looked  round 
upon  The  Masque  as  he  uttered  these  words,  and  with 
pallid,  ghastly  consternation,  beheld  him  raise  to  his 
lips  a  hunting  horn  which  depended  from  his  neck. 
He  blew  a  blast,  which  was  immediately  answered 
from  within.  Silence  as  of  the  grave  ensued.  All 
eyes  were  turned  in  the  direction  of  the  answer. 
Expectation  was  at  its  summit ;  and  in  less  than  a 
minute  solemnly  uprose  the  curtain  which  divided  the 
chapel  from  the  ante-chapel,  revealing  a  scene  that 


KLOSTERHKIM.  *J  I  ."> 

smote  many  hearts  with  awe,  and  the  consciences  of 
some  with  as  much  horror  as  if  it  had  really  been  that 
final  tribunal,  which  numbers  believed  The  Masque  to 
have  denounced. 


246  KLOSTERHEIM. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE  great  chapel  of  St.  Agnes,  the  immemorial  hal 

of  coronation    for   the   Landgraves   of    X ,    was 

capable  of  containing  with  ease  from  seven  to  eight 
.thousand  spectators.  Nearly  that  number  was  now 
collected  in  the  galleries,  which,  on  the  recurrence  of 
that  great  occasion,  or  of  a  royal  marriage,  were 
usually  assigned  to  the  spectators.  These  were  all 
equipped  in  burnished  arms,  the  very  elite  of  the 
Imperial  army.  Resistance  was  hopeless  ;  in  a  single 
moment  the  Landgrave  saw  himself  dispossessed  of 
all  his  hopes  by  an  overwhelming  force,  the  advanced 
guard,  in  fact,  of  the  victorious  Imperialists,  now  fresh 
from  Nordlingen. 

On  the  marble  area  of  the  chapel,  level  with  their 
own  position,  were  arranged  a  brilliant  staff  of  offi 
cers  ;  and  a  little  in  advance  of  them,  so  as  almost 
to  reach  the  ante -chapel,  stood  the  Imperial  Legate  or 
ambassador.  This  nobleman  advanced  to  the  crowd 
of  Klosterheimers,  and  spoke  thus :  — 

"  Citizens  of  Klosterheim,  I  bring  you  from  the 
Emperor  your  true  and  lawful  Landgrave,  Maximilian, 
son  of  your  last  beloved  Prince." 


KLOSTERIIEIM.  247 

Both  chapels  resounded  with  acclamations  ;  and  the 
troops  presented  arms. 

"  Show  us  our  Prince  !  let  us  pay  him  our  homage  !  " 
echoed  from  every  mouth. 

"  This  is  mere  treason  !  "  exclaimed  the  Usurper. 
"  The  Emperor  invites  treason  against  his  own 
throne,  who  undermines  that  of  other  Princes.  The 
late  Landgrave  had  no  son  ;  so  much  is  known  to 
you  all." 

"  None  that  was  known  to  his  murderer,"  replied 
The  Masque,  "  else  had  he  met  no  better  fate  than  his 
unhappy  father." 

"  Murderer !  And  what  art  thou,  blood-polluted 
Masque,  with  hands  yet  reeking  from  the  blood  of  all 
who  refused  to  join  the  conspiracy  against  your  lawful 
Prince  ?  " 

"  Citizens  of  Klosterheim,"  said  the  Legate,  "  first 
let  the  Emperor's  friend  be  assoiled  from  all  injurious 
thoughts.  Those  whom  ye  believe  to  have  been  re^ 
moved  by  murder,  are  here  to  speak  for  themselves." 

Upon  this  the  whole  line  of  those  who  had  mys 
teriously  disappeared  from  Klosterheim,  presented 
themselves  to  the  welcome  of  their  astonished  friends. 

"  These,"  said  the  Legate,  "  quitted  Klosterheim, 
even  by  the  same  secret  passages  which  enabled  us  to 
enter  it,  and  for  the  same-self  purpose,  to  prepare  the 
path  for  the  restoration  of  the  true  heir,  Maximilian 


218  KLOSTERHEIM. 

the  Fourth,  whom  in  this  noble  Prince  you  behold,  and 
whom  may  God  long  preserve  !  " 

Saying  this,  to  the  wonder  of  the  whole  assembly  he 
led  forward  The  Masque,  whom  nobody  had  yet  sus 
pected  for  more  than  an  agent  of  the  true  heir. 

The  Landgrave,  meantime,  thus  suddenly  denounced 
as  a  tyrant  —  usurper  —  murderer,  had  stood  aloof, 
and  had  given  but  a  slight  attention  to  the  latter  words 
of  the  Legate.  A  race  of  passions  had  traversed  his 
countenance,  chasing  each  other  in  flying  succession. 
But  by  a  prodigious  effort  he  recalled  himself  to  the 
scene  before  him  ;  and,  striding  up  to  the  crowd,  of 
which  the  Legate  was  the  central  figure,  he  raised  his 
arm  with  a  gesture  of  indignation,  and  protested  ve 
hemently  that  the  assassination  of  Maximilian's  father 
had  been  iniquitously  charged  upon  himself:  — "  And 
yet,"  said  he,  "  upon  that  one  gratuitous  assumption 
have  been  built  all  the  other  foul  suspicions  directed 
against  my  person." 

"  Pardon  me,  sir,"  replied  the  Legate,  "  the  evi 
dences  were  such  as  satisfied  the  Emperor  and  his 
Council ;  and  he  showed  it  by  the  vigilance  with 
which  he  watched  over  the  Prince  Maximilian,  and  the 
anxiety  with  which  he  kept  him  from  approaching 
your  Highness,  until  his  pretensions  could  be  establish 
ed  by  arms.  But,  if  more  direct  evidence  were  want 
ing,  since  yesterday  we  have  had  it  in  the  dying 
confession  of  the  very  agent  employed  to  strike  the 


KLOSTERHEW.  2 10 

fatal  blow.  That  man  died  last  night  penitent  and 
contrite,  having  fully  unburdened  his  conscience  at 
WaldrnhausL-n.  With  evidence  so  overwhelming,  the 
Emperor  exacts  no  further  sacrifice  from  your  High 
ness  than  that  of  retirement  from  public  life,  to  any 
one  of  your  own  castles  in  your  patrimonial  principal 
ity  of  Oberhornstein.  But,  now  for  a  more  pleasing 
duty.  Citizens  of  Klosterheim,  welcome  your  young 
Landgrave  in  the  Emperor's  name  :  and  to-morrow 
you  shall  welcome  also  your  future  Landgravine,  the 
lovely  Countess  Paulina,  cousin  to  the  Emperor,  my 
master,  and  cousin  also  to  your  noble  young  Land 
grave." 

"  No  !  "  exclaimed  the  malignant  usurper,  "  her  you 
shall  never  see  alive  :  for  that,  be  well  assured,  I  have 
taken  care." 

"  Vile,  unworthy  Prince  !  "  replied  IV^Lximilian,  his 
eyes  kindling  with  passion,  "  know  that  your  inten 
tions,  so  worthy  of  a  fiend,  towards  that  most  innocent 
of  ladies,  have  been  confounded  and  brought  to  noth 
ing  by  your  own  gentle  daughter,  worthy  of  a  far 
nobler  father." 

"  If  you  speak  of  my  directions  for  administering 
the  torture,  a  matter  in  which  I  presume  that  I  exer 
cised  no  unusual  privilege  amongst  German  sovereigns, 
you  are  right.  But  it  was  not  that  of  which  I  spoke." 

"  Of  what  else  then  ?  The  Lady  Paulina  has 
escaped." 


250  KLOSTERIIEIM. 


"  True,  to  Falkenberg.  But,  doubtless,  young 
Landgrave,  you  have  heard  of  such  a  thing  as  the 
intercepting  of  a  fugitive  prisoner ;  in  such  a  case  you 
know  the  punishment  which  martial  law  awards.  The 
governor  at  Falkenberg  had  his  orders."  These  last 
significant  words  he  uttered  in  a  tone  of  peculiar  mean 
ing.  His  eye  sparkled  with  bright  gleams  of  malice 
and  of  savage  vengeance,  rioting  in  its  completion. 

"  Oh,  heart  —  heart !  "  exclaimed  Maximilian,  "  can 
this  be  possible  ?  " 

The  Imperial  Legate  and  all  present  crowded  around 
him  to  suggest  such  consolation  as  they  could.  Some 
offered  to  ride  off  express  to  Falkenberg ;  some  argued 
that  the  Lady  Paulina  had  been  seen  within  the  last 
hour.  But  the  hellish  exulter  in  ruined  happiness  de 
stroyed  that  hope  as  soon  as  it  dawned  :  — 

"Children^"  said  he,  "foolish  children!  cherish 
not  such  chimeras.  Me  you  have  destroyed,  Land 
grave,  and  the  prospects  of  my  house.  Now  perish 
yourself.  Look  there :  is  that  the  form  of  one  who 
lives  and  breathes  ?  " 

All  present  turned  to  the  scaffold,  in  which  direction 
he  pointed,  and  now  first  remarked,  covered  with  a 
black  pall,  and  brought  hither  doubtless  to  aggravate 
the  pangs  of  death  to  Maximilian,  what  seemed  but  too 
certainly  a  female  corpse.  The  stature,  the  fine  swell 
of  the  bust,  the  rich  outline  of  the  form,  all  pointed  to 
the  same  conclusion  ;  and  in  this  recumbent  attitude,  it 


KLOSTERHEIM.  251 

seemed  but  too  clearly  to  present  the  magnificent  pro 
portions  of  Paulina. 

There  was  a  dead  silence.  Who  could  endure  to 
break  it  ?  Who  make  the  effort  which  was  forever  to 
fix  the  fate  of  Maximilian  ? 

He  himself  could  not.  At  last  the  deposed  usurper, 
craving  for  the  consummation  of  his  vengeance,  him 
self  strode  forward  ;  with  one  savage  grasp  he  tore 
away  the  pall,  and  below  it  lay  the  innocent  features, 
sleeping  in  her  last  tranquil  slumber,  of  his  own  gentle- 
minded  daughter. 

No  heart  was  found  savage  enough  to  exult  —  the 
sorrow  even  of  such  a  father  was  sacred.  Death,  and 
through  his  own  orders,  had  struck  the  only  being 
whom  he  had  ever  loved ;  and  the  petrific  mace  of  the 
fell  destroyer  seemed  to  have  smitter*  his  own  heart 
and  withered  its  hopes  forever. 

Everybody  comprehended  the  mistake  in  a  moment. 
Paulina  had  lingered  at  Waldenhausen  under  the  pro 
tection  of  an  Imperial  corps,  which  she  had  met  in  her 
flight.  The  tyrant,  who  had  heard  of  her  escape,  but 
apprehended  no  necessity  for  such  a  step  on  the  part 
of  his  daughter,  had  issued  sudden  orders  to  the  officer 
commanding  the  military  post  at  Falkenberg,  to  seize 
and  shoot  the  female  prisoner  escaping  from  confine 
ment,  without  allowing  any  explanations  whatsoever, 
on  her  arrival  at  Falkenberg.  This  precaution  he  had 


252  KLOSTERHEIM. 

adopted  in  part  to  intercept  any  denunciation  of  the 
Emperor's  vengeance  which  Paulina  might  address  to 
the  officer.  As  a  rude  soldier,  accustomed  to  obey 
the  letter  of  his  orders,  this  commandant  had  executed 
his  commission;  and  the  gentle  Adeline,  who  had 
naturally  hastened  to  the  protection  of  her  father's 
chateau,  surrendered  her  breath  meekly  and  with  re 
signation  to  what  she  believed  a  simple  act  of  military 
violence ;  and  this  she  did  before  she  could  know  a 
syllable  of  her  father's  guilt  or  his  fall,  and  without 
any  the  least  reason  for  supposing  him  connected  with 
the  occasion  of  her  early  death. 

At  this  moment  Paulina  made  her  appearance  unex 
pectedly,  to  reassure  the  young  Landgrave  by  her 
presence,  and  to  weep  over  her  young  friend,  whom 
she  had  lost  almost  before  she  had  come  to  know  her. 
The  scaffold,  -the  corpse,  and  the  other  images  of  sor- 
row,  were  then  withdrawn  ;  —  seven  thousand  Imperial 
troops  presented  arms  to  the  youthful  Landgrave  and 
the  future  Landgravine,  the  brilliant  favorites  of  the 
Emperor; — the  immense  area  of  St.  Agnes  resounded 
with  the  congratulations  of  Klosterheim  ;  —  and  as  the 
magnificent  cortege  moved  off  to  the  interior  of  the 
schloss,  the  swell  of  the  Coronation  anthem  rising  in 
peals  upon  the  ear  from  the  choir  of  St.  Agnes,  and 
from  the  military  bands  of  the  Imperial  troops,  awoke 
the  promise  of  happier  days,  and  of  more  equitable 


KLOSTERHE1M.  •-'.">:* 

government  to  the  long-harassed  inhabitants  of  KIos- 
terheim. 

The  Klosterheimers  knew  enough  already,  person 
ally  or  by  questions  easily  answered  in  every  quarter, 
to  supply  any  links  which  were  wanting  in  the  rapid 
explanations  of  the  Legate.  Nevertheless,  that  nothing 
might  remain  liable  to  misapprehension  or  cavil,  a 
short  manifesto  was  this  night  circulated  by  the  new 
government,  from  which  the  following  facts  are  ab 
stracted  :  — 

The  last  rightful  Landgrave,  whilst  yet  a  young 
man,  had  been  assassinated  in  the  forest  when  hunting. 
A  year  or  two  before  this  catrastrophe  he  had  con 
tracted,  what,  from  the  circumstances,  was  presumed 
at  the  time,  to  be  a  morganatic,  or  left-handed  mar 
riage,  with  a  lady  of  high  bicth,  nearly  connected  with 
the  Imperial  House.  The  effect  of  such  a  marriage 
went  to  incapacitate  the  children  who  might  be  born 
under  it,  male  or  female,  from  succeeding.  On  that 
account,  as  well  as  because  current  report  had  repre 
sented  her  as  childless,  the  widow  lady  escaped  all 
attempts  from  the  assassin.  Meantime  this  lady,  who 
was  no  other  than  Sister  Madeline,  had  been  thus  in 
debted  for  her  safety  to  two  rumors,  which  were  in 
fact  equally  false.  She  soon  found  means  of  convin 
cing  the  Emperor,  who  had  been  the  bosom  friend  of 
her  princely  husband,  that  her  marriage  was  a  perfect 


254  KLOSTERHEIM. 

one,  and  conferred  the  fullest  rights  of  succession  upon 
her  infant  son  Maximilian,  whom  at  the  earliest  age, 
and  with  the  utmost  secrecy,  she  had  committed  to  the 
care  of  his  Imperial  Majesty.  This  powerful  guardian 
had  in  every  way  watched  over  the  interests  of  the 
young  Prince.  But  the  Thirty  Years'  War  had  thrown 
all  Germany  into  distractions,  which  for  a  time 
thwarted  the  Emperor,  and  favored  the  views  of  the 
usurper.  Latterly  also  another  question  had  arisen  on 
the  city  and  dependencies  of  Klosterheim  as  distinct 
from  the  Landgraviate.  These,  it  was  now  affirmed, 
were  a  female  appanage,  and  could  only  pass  back  to 

the  Landgraves  of  X through  a  marriage  with  the 

female  inheretrix.  To  reconcile  all  claims,  therefore, 
on  finding  this  bar  in  the  way,  the  Emperor  had 
resolved  to  promote  a  marriage  for  Maximilian  with 
Paulina,  who  stood  equally  related  to  the  Imperial 
house  and  to  that  of  her  lover.  In  this  view  he  had 
despatched  Paulina  to  Klosterheim,  with  proper  docu 
ments  to  support  the  claims  of  both  parties.  Of  these 
documents  she  had  been  robbed  at  Waldenhausen ; 
and  the  very  letter,  which  was  designed  to  introduce 
Maximilian  as  "  the  child  and  sole  representative  of 
the  late  murdered  Landgrave,"  falling  in  this  surrep 
titious  way  into  the  usurper's  hand,  had  naturally  mis 
directed  his  attacks  to  the  person  of  Paulina. 

For  the  rest,  as  regarded  the  mysterious  movements 
of  The  Masque,  these  were  easily  explained.     Fear, 


KLOSTERHF.IM. 

and  the  rx;iirLr< -rations  of  fear,  had  done  one-half  the 
work  to  his  hands  —  by  preparing  people  to  fall  easy 
dupes  to  the  plans  laid,  and  by  increasing  the  romantic 
wonders  of  his  achievements.  Co-operation  also,  on 
the  part  of  the  very  students  and  others  who  stood  for 
ward  as  the  night  watch  for  detecting  him,  had  served 
The  Masque  no  less  powerfully.  The  appearances  of 
deadly  struggles  had  been  arranged  artificially  to 
countenance  the  plot  and  to  aid  the  terror.  Finally, 
the  secret  passages  which  communicated  between  the 
forest  and  the  chapel  of  St.  Agnes,  (passages  of  which 
many  were  actually  applied  to  that  very  use  in  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,)  had  been  unreservedly  placed  at 
their  disposal  by  the  Lady  Abbess,  an  early  friend  of 
the  unhappy  Landgravine,  who  sympathized  deeply 
with  that  lady's  unmerited  sufferings. 

One  other  explanation  followed,  communicated  m  a 
letter  from  Maximilian  to  the  Legate  ;  this  related  to 
the  murder  of  the  old  seneschal,  a  matter  in  which  the 
young  Prince  took  some  blame  to  himself —  as  having 
unintentionally  drawn  upon  that  excellent  servant  his 
unhappy  fate.  "  The  seneschal,"  said  the  writer, 
"  was  the  faithful  friend  of  my  family,  and  knew  the 
whole  course  of  its  misfortunes.  He  continued  his 
abode  at  the  schloss,  to  serve  my  interest ;  and  in  some 
measure  I  may  fear  that  I  drew  upon  him  his  fate. 
Traversing  late  one  evening  a  suite  of  rooms,  which 
his  assistance  and  my  own  mysterious  disguise  laid 


256  KLOSTERHEIM. 

open  to  my  passage  at  all  hours,  I  came  suddenly  upon 
the  Prince's  retirement.  He  pursued  me,  but  with 
hesitation  :  some  check  I  gave  to  his  motions  by  halt 
ing  before  a  portrait  of  my  unhappy  father,  and  em 
phatically  pointing  his  attention  to  it.  Conscience,  I 
well  knew,  would  supply  a  commentary  to  my  act.  I 
produced  the  impression  which  I  had  anticipated,  but 
not  so  strongly  as  to  stop  his  pursuit.  My  course 
necessarily  drew  him  into  the  seneschal's  room.  The 
old  man  was  sleeping  ;  and  this  accident  threw  into 
the  Prince's  hands  a  paper,  which,  I  have  reason  to 
think,  shed  some  considerable  light  upon  my  own  pre 
tensions,  and,  in  fact,  first  made  my  enemy  acquainted 
with  my  existence  and  my  claims.  Meantime,  the 
seneschal  had  secured  the  Prince's  vengeance  upon 
himself.  He  was  now  known  as  a  faithful  agent  in 
my  service.  That  fact  signed  his  death-warrant. 
There  is  a  window  in  a  gallery  which  commands  the 
interior  of  the  seneschal's  room.  On  the  evening  of 
the  last/eie,  waiting  there  for  an  opportunity  of  speak 
ing  securely  with  this  faithful  servant,  I  heard  a  deep 
groan,  and  then  another,  and  another ;  I  raised  myself, 
and  with  an  ejaculation  of  horror,  looked  down  upon 
the  murderer  —  then  surveying  his  victim  with  hellish 
triumph.  My  loud  exclamation  drew  the  murderer's 
eye  upwards  :  under  the  pangs  of  an  agitated  con 
science,  I  have  reason  to  think  that  he  took  me  for  my 
unhappy  father,  who  perished  at  my  age,  and  is  said  to 


KLOSTERIIK1M.  257 

have  resembled  me  closely.  Who  that  murderer  was, 
I  need  not  say  more  directly.  He  fled  with  the  terror 
of  one  who  flies  from  an  apparition.  Taking  a  lesson 
from  this  incident,  on  that  same  night,  by  the  very 
same  sudden  revelation  of  what  passed,  no  doubt,  for 
my  father's  countenance,  aided  by  my  mysterious 
character,  and  the  proof  I  had  announced  to  him  im 
mediately  before  of  my  acquaintance  with  the  secret 
of  the  seneschal's  murder  —  in  this  and  no  other  way  it 
was,  that  I  produced  that  powerful  impression  upon  the 
Prince  which  terminated  the  festivities  of  that  evening, 
and  .which  all  Klosterheim  witnessed.  If  not,  it  is  for 
the  Prince  to  explain  in  what  other  way*I  did  or  could 
affect  him  so  powerfully." 

This  explanation  of  the  else  unaccountable  horror 
manifested  by  the  Ex-Landgrave  on  the  sudden  expo 
sure  of  The  Masque's  features,  received  a.  remarkable 
confirmation  from  the  confession  of  the  miserable 
assassin  at  Waldenhausen.  This  man's  illness  had 
been  first  brought  on  by  the  sudden  shock  of  a  situa 
tion  pretty  nearly  the  same,  acting  on  a  conscience 
more  disturbed  and  a  more  superstitious  mind.  In  the 
very  act  of  attempting  to  assassinate  or  rob  Maximilian, 
he  had  been  suddenly  dragged  by  that  Prince  into  a 
dazzling  light ;  and  this  settling  full  upon  features 
which  too  vividly  recalled  to  the  murderer's  recollec 
tion  the  last  unhappy  Landgrave,  at  the  very  same 
period  of  blooming  manhood,  and  in  his  own  favorite 
17 


258  KLOSTERI1EIM. 

hunting  palace,  not  far  from  which  the  murder  had 
been  perpetrated,  naturally  enough  had  for  a  time  un 
settled  the  guilty  man's  understanding,  and  terminating 
in  a  nervous  fever,  had  at  length  produced  his  peni 
tential  death. 

A  death,  happily  of  the  same  character,  soon  over 
took  the  deposed  Landgrave.  He  was  laid  by  the  side 
of  his  daughter,  whose  memory,  as  much  even  as  his 
own  penitence,  availed  to  gather  round  his  final  rest 
ing-place  the  forgiving  thoughts  even  of  those  who  had 
suffered  most  from  his  crimes.  Klosterheim  in  the 
next  age  flourished  greatly,  being  one  of  those  cities 
which  benefited  by  the  peace  of  Westphalia.  Many 
changes  took  place  in  consequence,  greatly  affecting 
the  architectural  character  of  the  town  and  its  pictu 
resque  antiquities  ;  but,  amidst  all  revolutions  of  this 
nature,  the  secret  passages  still  survive,  and  to  this  day 
are  shown  occasionally  to  strangers  of  rank  and  con 
sideration,  by  which,  more  than  by  any  other  of  the 
advantages  at  his  disposal,  The  Masque  of  Klosterheim 
was  enabled  to  replace  himself  in  his  patrimonial 
rights,  and  at  the  same  time  to  liberate  from  a  growing 
oppression  his  own  compatriots  and  subjects. 


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